Twister is a

decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

and experimental

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

microblogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...

program which uses

end-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of implementing a secure communication system where only communicating users can participate. No one else, including the system provider, telecom providers, Internet providers or malicious actors, can ...

to safeguard communications. Based on

BitTorrent BitTorrent is a Protocol (computing), communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a Decentralised system, decentralized manner. The protocol is d ...

and

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

-like protocols, it has been likened to a distributed version of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

. In 2020, original author Miguel Freitas said that he would no longer be leading Twister development for the "foreseeable future". The Twister network has continued functioning, however, and Freitas suggested that others might want to fork the project. It was also announced that the website might go offline, since its hosting was due to expire. The Twister core had been at version 0.9.40 since 2018. Its

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

remains available on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

Overview

Twister is a Twitter-like microblogging platform that utilizes the same blockchain technology as

and the file-exchange method of

, both based on P2P technology. Twister was alpha-phase experimental software in 2014, implemented as a distributed

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

system. User registration and authentication are provided by a Bitcoin-like network, so it does not depend on a central authority. Distribution of posts uses a

Kademlia Kademlia is a distributed hash table for decentralized peer-to-peer computer networks designed by Petar Maymounkov and David Mazières in 2002. It specifies the structure of the network and the exchange of information through node (networking), no ...

distributed hash table A distributed hash table (DHT) is a Distributed computing, distributed system that provides a lookup service similar to a hash table. Key–value pairs are stored in a DHT, and any participating node (networking), node can efficiently retrieve the ...

(DHT) network and BitTorrent-like swarms, both provided by

libtorrent libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtor ...

. Miguel Freitas, aiming to build a censor-resistant public posting platform, began development of Twister in July 2013 to address free-speech and privacy concerns. Building on Bitcoin and Bittorrent, he built the core structure in October 2013. Lucas Leal was hired to create HTML and CSS for the user interface, with Freitas writing the required JavaScript code. Twenty-five hundred user accounts were registered in the platform's first six days of operation. Twister cannot be incapacitated (since there is no central point to attack), and uses end-to-end encryption. As a consequence of decentralization, a user will be unable to regain access to their "account" if they lose access to their secret key.

History

Brazilian computer engineer and programmer Miguel Freitas started developing the social network after learning about the massive

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

programs of the US's

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) from NSA whistleblower

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs. Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...

. He began to worry about the accessibility of a large quantity of information controlled by a single entity under American jurisdiction. According to Freitas, Twitter is the social network that has been the most prominent in promoting democracy and the organisation of protests. He built Twister based on privacy-preserving technology due to the risks involved in providing personal information on social networks in light of mass surveillance conducted by the NSA. Freitas and his developer, Leal, built the application's alpha version for Android,

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

. First-party versions for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

are not planned.

Technology

Twister is a distributed system that uses

architecture. Unlike other decentralised networks, it does not require the user to use their own server or trust a third-party server to use it. Distribution is achieved through the

protocol, on a different network than that used by the

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

. The protocol handles the registration of users, and the Twister network verifies the users' names and that a message posted by a user originated from that user. Messages are transmitted through the

protocol. Because it is a peer-to-peer system, there is no central server from which information may be collected. Twister was developed in

, and was ported to Android and

Functionality

The first Twister prototype intended to reproduce the basic characteristics of

platforms, including: * Searching, following and unfollowing users * Limiting the length of text-based messages to 140 characters * Broadcasting and answering messages * Browsing through mentions,

hashtags A hashtag is a Tag (metadata), metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the Number sign, hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo sharing, photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a fo ...

and private messages Private messages require the addressee to follow the speaker.

Security

Twister has no central node to mediate messages. It uses 256-bit ECC encryption with the same parameters as

, reportedly providing similar security to a 3072-bit RSA key. The direct message application is based on code published by Ladar Levison of Lavabit. Peers' IP addresses are not recorded in the application, but network interception can identify data flow between devices.According to Freitas, this guarantees anonymity but does not mean that the IP address will not be detected by the ISP; rather, it means the content of the message will not be visible except to someone who can decrypt it.

References

External links

* {{microblogging Distributed computing Text messaging Social networking services Free software programmed in C++ Microblogging software Android (operating system) software Anonymity networks Peer-to-peer computing Brazilian inventions Software using the BSD license Software using the MIT license