The Pirate Bay’s PirateBrowser is expanding its user base rapidly, far beyond the expectations of the site’s operators. The Tor-based browser, which allows people to bypass ISP filtering and access blocked websites, has already been downloaded more than 500,000 times since its launch earlier this month. The increase in downloads coincides with a mysterious increase in Tor users, but contrary to speculation it’s unlikely that the two events are related.
Unlike the Tor browser, PirateBrowser does not provide full anonymity. It’s only meant to unblock The Pirate Bay in regions where it’s censored, which is good enough for most users of the site. Downloads of the tool are going through the roof.
Around the same time the PirateBrowser was launched, the number of users on the Tor network started to grow rapidly. Tor project leader Roger Dingledine mentioned the spike on the Tor email list, hinting that PirateBrowser may have something to do with it.
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