> For the onion router to work properly, the Navy needed to step back from running it. A cloaking system is not useful if all the cloaks say “Navy” on them. “If you have a system that’s only a Navy system, anything popping out of it is obviously from the Navy,” Syverson says. “You need to have a network that carries traffic for other people as well.” Tor Project was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2006 to manage operations. [0]
[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-23/tor-anony...
...it's kinda like how we were all told that the 1950s-1970s space-launches with monkeys and other animals in them were for bio-scientific experiments when they were really just cover stories for launching spy-sats and military satellites.
To be clear, they encourage democratic ideals where/if it's in their own interests to. There are plenty of places where they encourage non-democratic ideals as well (or directly fund their own coups to put usually military leaders they like in power).
I wouldn't trust Tor to solely protect my identity since there might be ways to attack it. But it can be an useful asset in a "pipeline" designed to protect one's identity.
Well, that would explain why the nodes don't get shut-down when the local police come knocking...
Still, that must require some very awkward conversations when ethics committees or even departmental budgets are approved - not to mention inviting consternation from the general-public who really don't approve of their tax-money being used to knowingly facilitate dark-net activities, especially horrific child abuse, ugh. (I'm a utilitarian myself, but personally I'd pull the plug on it: surely there are better ways for embedded agents to exchange information? What about digital-steganography, and concealable satellite comms hardware?)