Chipping Away at Censorship Firewalls With User-Generated Content

Oppressive regimes and even democratic governments restrict Internet access. Existing anti-censorship systems often require users to connect through proxies, but these systems are relatively easy for a censor to discover and block. This paper offers a possible next step in the censorship arms race: rather than relying on a single system or set of proxies to circumvent censorship firewalls, the paper explores whether the vast deployment of sites that host user-generated content can breach these firewalls. To explore this possibility, the paper has developed Collage, which allows users to exchange messages through hidden channels in sites that host user-generated content.