Facebook Not Blocking TOR Logins Permanently

By Gilbert Falso :: 11:49 AM

A news story on the website Arab Crunch earlier this morning made the rounds of the Internet claiming that Facebook had been deliberately blocking the ability for users to log in using the anonymized browsing service TOR.

TOR is a popular tool used by political activists in emerging democracies and countries in turmoil to hide their tracks while using social media services to communicate with their supporters, media, and the outside world in general.

Though it does appear that Facebook was indeed blocking TOR logins for a time, there was no malicious intent on Facebook’s part in doing this.

The block was initiated by Facebook’s system automatically when it detected a higher than normal volume of unexplained activity that the social network’s security tools believed could have been attributed to hackers. Facebook’s actions were taken to protect Facebook users from possible harm due to unauthorized activity.

According to a post on the TOR blog, Facebook is aware that the block has been temporarily put in place, and is working with TOR to address the issue and allow users to log in via the TOR service again.

The TOR blog post reads:

A number of users have noticed that Facebook is blocking connections from the Tor network. Facebook is not blocking Tor deliberately. However, a high volume of malicious activity across Tor exit nodes triggered Facebook’s site integrity systems which are designed to protect people who use the service. Tor and Facebook are working together to find a resolution.

Facebook has not yet commented publicly about the issue.