PirateSnoop, the new browser to unblock torrent sites and beat censorship

Blocking access to torrent sites has become the new fad around town recently. Users from Europe and USA are the victims of censorship from sites, majority of which are sites holding torrent files. As the race to block user access to the world’s largest torrent sites continues, another website has stepped up to battle censorship. RARBG, one of the most-used torrent sites on the Internet, has just launched PirateSnoop, a free web browser designed to easily skirt web blockades across the globe.

Widespread

With the exception of OldPirateBay, no major torrent site can be directly accessed from Europe anymore. OldPirateBay enjoys the exclusion only because it is relatively new. Even in the U.S., the MPAA is working hard to introduce site-blocking mechanisms by invoking creative interpretations of existing law. It seems unlikely that Hollywood and music companies will stop until they get it done their way. It has become more and more evident that users will have to prepare for a world full of censorship, if they wish to access the internet in future.

Beating Censorship

While censorship seems to be a norm now, there will always be ways to get is freedom via services like VPNs and there will always be people looking for a free alternatives. For these very users, RARBG has launched a new web browser labelled PirateSnoop that allows its users to skirt blockades and access torrent websites. In appearance , the browser is identical to Chrome with the exception of a Pirate flag on the right hand side of the address bar.

PirateSnoop is based on the freeware web browser SRWare Iron which aims to eliminate some of the privacy-compromising features present in Google Chrome. PirateSnoop is then augmented with special extensions to enable its site unblocking features.

Rise against censorship

RARBG has grown to become the 7th most popular torrent site and a force to reckon with. And as the popularity came, the ISP blocks followed. The main concern is not that the sites are being blocked, it is the lack of resistance.

“Nazi Germany had less censorship than we have today on the Internet,” the PS team informs TorrentFreak. “However you are not paying for the Internet itself to your ISPs, but for the carrying of the Internet connectivity. ISPs are legally enforced by their countries to block content and what we are worried about is that little to none of the ISPs decided to fight any blocking court order.”

Alternative to Tor

There also exists PirateBrowser which has the same end goal. However, the main difference is that PirateBrowser uses the Tor network, which is increasingly being blocked by major torrent sites.

“The TOR network is abused by a lot of people – uploading fakes for example. It’s also used by DMCA agencies to scan sites. TOR is no longer an option to access sites. Its blocked on almost every site I know,” a dev explains.

Instead, PirateSnoop uses its own custom proxy network which utilizes full HTTPS instead of the HTTP used by basic proxies. Just like a regular browser to website connection, PS allows websites to see their users’ IP addresses (unless they’re using a VPN) in order to cut down on abuse.

Upgrades incoming

As of now, many blocked sites are supported by the browser, though there are certain omissions. The team has confirmed that they are committed to upgrading the browser.. “Any site that is requested to be added will be added immediately with no questions asked,” the team noted.

The browser can be downloaded from here using BitTorrent