> Tor was created to help dissidents of other nations communicate [1]

Why would the US Navy develop something to help dissidents in other nations?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)#Histor...

> The core principle of Tor, "onion routing", was developed in the mid-1990s by United States Naval Research Laboratory employees, mathematician Paul Syverson, and computer scientists Michael G. Reed and David Goldschlag, with the purpose of protecting U.S. intelligence communications online. Onion routing was further developed by DARPA in 1997

> Why would the US Navy develop something to help dissidents in other nations?

From their website: "The [Naval Research Laboratory] works closely with the National Security Agency (NSA), Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)."

Those are US gov't agencies, not "dissidents in other nations."

It's also designed for dissidents in countries that are either opponents or rivals of the US: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Brazil, and Venezuela. It allowed for pro-US dissidents and agents to stay unidentifiable to these nations while distributing pro-US messages.

I think the confusion here is some of us were talking about Tor as in "the onion router" as a protocol and some were talking about The Tor Project software. Who knows if government agencies use the tor project, or have their own specialized version.

The only reason I asked was because I've heard that government agencies need Tor because it's in their best interest to have channels for anonymity (again, not giving an opinion on whether it's good or bad, just a fact). So if methods for breaking that anonymity arise, I'd imagine it's a concern for them as much as any dissident out there.

>Why would the US Navy develop something to help dissidents in other nations?

Seriously? USA's notorious for not wanting to influence the destiny or politics of other countries, eh. /s

Congrats on pulling up a wikipedia article. You are now an expert.

Not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just capable of doing the most basic of research, which is something you probably should have done before commenting.