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mk · 4748 days ago · link · · parent · post: Why wireless mesh networks won’t save us from censorship
I don't know if it is so much anonymity, but censorship that people are worried about, particularly regarding SOPA. The legislation gives the US authority to block domains because they were said to contain copyrighted material. That is, hubski.com could be blocked because someone posts Nickelback's new single.
Ok, that might actually be deserved, but you get the point. That said, SOPA wouldn't block IPs. So, if you typed 173.255.237.82, you'd still get here. But, I agree, mesh networks might not be the solution. Maybe the best solution is a hybrid where your computer searches for the server over multiple networks. As long as the US government acts like it does, we need to keep trying.
I'm not completely sure how it works, but Tor allows people to navigate websites on the "deep web" that are completely anonymous and untraceable (the most popular example is Silk Road, an online marketplace for illegal substances and weaponry). One problem with this method is that, since it relies on constantly rerouting traffic through various proxies, it's not great for streaming media sites. I'm sure that could be optimized in the future, but until then, it seems like a viable way of avoiding censorship for other types of sites.
(As a side note, it's a bit sad that we must resort to "sneaking around" in order to do completely legal things due to bogus laws.)