If your government was blocking a Web site, would you band together with others to make the site better (flagging offensive comments, for example) or browse anonymously?
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Syria: Using Tor for Censorship Resistance

Internet filtering is a growing global phenomenon; according to the OpenNet Initiative, 26 out of 40 countries studied in 2006 censored the Internet in some way. While the majority of those countries dabble in filtering, Reporters Without Borders has named a number of countries as "Internet black holes." One of those countries is Syria.
Syria, which has officially been under Emergency Law since 1963, consistently ranks low on human rights and civil liberties indexes. According to Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2008 report, authorities' suppression of opposition activities is a leading factor in Syria's declining freedom rankings. Syria's Internet filtering scheme, deemed "pervasive" by the OpenNet Initiative, includes most blogging platforms, Facebook, YouTube and other video-sharing sites, and a number of Israel-related sites. In the past, Syria has also filtered Hotmail and other free e-mail sites.
Although Syrian Internet penetration remains around 10 percent, there is an active blogosphere, many of whose members actively resist the censorship imposed on them by their government. One such blogger is Anas Qtiesh, who says he abandoned his blog after Blogger was blocked in Syria. Says Qtiesh, "You could still open Blogger and post but no one in Syria can access a -.blogspot.com blog [without circumvention software]. It was really discouraging and frustrating."

Although there are less than 100,000 Facebook users in Syria, the ban on Facebook has had a significant effect on Internet users. Qtiesh explains that when Facebook was first blocked (allegedly due to spam-like negative comments on President Assad and his wife, some Syrian users attempted to flag and remove offensive comments in an effort to fight the censorship and convince authorities to unblock the site. "When that initiative failed," says Qtiesh, "Tech-savvy users realized that it was easier to go around the block than to actually make an effort to convince authorities to lift it."

Qtiesh, who accesses the Internet from cybercafes outside of work, says: "Proxy programs are now an essential part of any Internet cafe's software. Safely tucked at the owner's main computer, he will send it to a user's computer on demand." Although a number of programs are used, Qtiesh uses Tor and says that other advanced users, particularly those for which anonymity is a priority, do as well.

While Tor’s primary use is that of an anonymizer, it’s clear that for those in countries facing pervasive filtering, it is also an effective method for circumvention. Additionally, Tor’s open design and dedicated volunteer base make it a sustainable option for the long-term.