Twister (microblogging)

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Twister
Basic data

developer Miguel Freitas
Publishing year December 30, 2013
Current  version alpha
(daily)
operating system cross-platform
programming language C.
category Security software , darknet , social software , peer-to-peer
License MIT license (core) and BSD license
German speaking No
twister.net.co

Twister is a microblogging software that works on a peer-to-peer basis and is still in the experimental stage. Miguel Freitas developed this as a Twitter alternative that is completely decentralized and therefore does not require a central server. Together with the end-to-end encryption used, there is no simple point of attack as is the case with server-based programs. In particular, this should also prevent censorship (deletion and change) of articles and the blocking of user accounts.

Basic concepts

Essential concepts of the software and the protocol were adopted from Bitcoin and BitTorrent . To distribute the posts, Twister uses distributed hash tables (DHT) and BitTorrent network-based swarms, both of which are made available by libtorrent. The versions of Bitcoin and libtorrent included are highly patched and deliberately not interoperable with the existing networks.

Twister is a peer-to-peer microblogging service in alpha phase, introduced as a system for sharing data. Since it is a completely decentralized network and therefore no single point of attack is available on the system, it is not possible to override it. Twister uses an encryption system to protect its users' communications. It is a decentralized network that, theoretically speaking, cannot be closed by anyone. In addition, the Twister design avoids other users being able to see GPS coordinates, IP addresses and the people another user is following. As with Twitter, it is possible to post publicly. As soon as private messages are sent directly to other users, they are protected by the same encryption scheme used by Lavabit (Edward Snowden's email provider). Basically, Twister is a connection between the social network, Twitter, and some more efficient IT projects, namely Bitcoin and BitTorrent, a data exchange protocol. Both are based on the P2P network.

During implementation, particular importance is attached to compliance with the main objectives of the software, which are as follows:

  • Free Speech : Free expression of opinion
  • No Spying : No spying
  • No IP recording : No storage of IP addresses

These basic concepts are intended to create a microblogging platform that ensures the anonymity of the participants as well as the privacy of the transmission in order to be able to publish messages anonymously and uncensored.

history

The Brazilian engineer and programmer, Miguel Freitas, began developing this new social network when, thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden, he learned about the espionage programs of the American National Security Agency (NSA). He was concerned that such an amount of information was available by order of the judge or supervision of a single company. According to Freitas, Twitter was the social network that was used most to promote democratic issues and organize protests, see the magazine "Wired". However, due to the massive surveillance it is dangerous to make personal information available to the existing social networks, which is why he decided to develop another system based on secure schemes. “As much as I liked using Twitter to read the news, the possibility that a single entity could control this important flow of information made no sense to me.” Freitas thought that future social networks would function on the basis of decentralized protocols and could no longer be controlled by a single central point. But as soon as he realized that the social networks were the target of massive surveillance by several government agencies, he began to develop an alternative. After a development phase, Freitas and his colleague, Lucas Leal, found the alpha version of the site, which is designed for Android, Linux and OS X, to be complete. Versions for Windows and iPhone are not planned, but since it is an open coding, anyone can change the application for other operating systems.

Functionality

The first prototype of Twister aims to integrate all the basic characteristics of a microblogging platform. This includes the following aspects:

  • User search and navigation profiles
  • Follow / unfollow users
  • Send limited text messages (140 characters)
  • Forward and reply to messages
  • Navigate message histories, mentions, hashtags, and private messages

To be able to send private messages, the recipient must be a follower of the sender. Given the majority of platforms in existence, this is an extremely common requirement. Some other features are difficult to implement in a completely decentralized system because they require more effort. This includes the arbitrary recording of words in all posts as well as the compilation of hashtags in order to be able to estimate significant trends.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ twister-core (English) - twister-core page at Git (accessed on: January 26, 2014 )