Hi, how do I setup a anonymous peertube instance.
So I can’t be located by anyone.
Do I run the whole Server through a VPN or Tor. Tor would slow the server down too much I think.
And could the country I live in take it down?
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To set up completely anonymously, you need nothing pointing back to you, so I’d recommend:
- Anonymous VPS: pay with Monero/crypto, use anonymous email for registration, and is in privacy-friendly jurisdiction
- Recommended VPS’s: Njalla, 1984 Hosting, FlokiNET
- Anonymous Domain: use registrar that accepts crypto and offers WHOIS privacy
- Most private are Njalla or IncogNET with Monero payment while accessed via Tor
- Only connect to your server via Tor when administering
As long as you pay via Monero and ALWAYS connect to admin via Tor, that’s about as private as you can get. No need to run PeerTube through VPN or Tor.
Could your country take it down? Potentially yes. They’ll have to identify the hosting provider and pressure them legally, and depending on their level of jurisdiction and level of international cooperation, your VPS could get taken down.
To minimize this, host in a jurisdiction known for ignoring takedown requests (Iceland, Romania, Switzerland are often cited) and/or host in a jurisdiction with strong free speech protections and weak cooperation with your country.
However, that will get costly, probably $200/m or more just for VPS hosting, and as you’re considering VPN or Tor, I think you’re wanting to host the server from home to save on cost. Here’s an alternative that’s solid for practical privacy and cost-effectiveness (and is what many small hosters actually do), but it’s not bulletproof. State-level actors will be able to identify you with some elbow-grease.
You still need to get a VPS anonymously, but on it you’ll be hosting essentially a reverse proxy/gateway VPN tunnel to your home server. It’ll be about $10/m.
I’d recommend WireGuard on both VPS and home server and connect to each other. Then install Nginx or CaddyV2 on VPS as reverse proxy. Point your domain towards your VPS, then your VPS will forward all requests through a tunnel to your home.
Your home server should only connect outbound to your VPS (no open ports at home).
This will protect against:
- casual visitors seeing your home IP address
- content takedowns (easily change VPS)
- your ISP from knowing what you’re hosting
However, this will not protect against:
- state-level adversaries who can pressure VPS provider
- anyone analyzing traffic can connect the VPS to your home
- legal compulsion forcing VPS to monitor tunnel destination
Once any of these happens, not only will your content be removed, but it’s led straight to you, unlike the first method where only your content will be taken down, assuming you had solid OPSEC and you didn’t make any mistake (one mistake and you’re unmasked, like logging in without Tor, or reusing identities, etc).
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I know this is not your actual question, and I’m sorry to be “that person” but, there is a better way to host takedown resistant content for everyone to see.
It’s still around, and it’s called https://odysee.com/ and it is the most (server-level) censorship resistant video platform to date.
- Decentralized video storage (videos are copied and stored in little bits around the world).
- Not a single video has been taken of the platform since it has been online.
- You can make an account with simply an anonymous email.
It got quite a popularity surge around 2021, but then it sizzled down, mainly because it has basically been algorithmically defamed on all big-tech platforms.
It was actually the biggest competitor Youtube had in decades.
It’s reputation, popularized by online discourse (some of it by 
), is that it’s full of bigotry and unmoderated hatespeech, and its using shitty crypto technologies. My opinion is that technology itself is neutral and that’s just a fact. So make of this what you will.
Naomi brockwell did a video on this, which will explain some of the underlying decentralized technology:
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I was watching this page yet without biased opinion of “online discourses” and the first thing I saw, even before the page could be loaded (because script was blocked): GoogleTagManager. And it is also no real decentralization as PeerTube is. The company is still the single point of failure, even with this concept of hosting on different hosters servers etc. It sounds more like an excuse for the company to not hire moderators (my opinion, which is maybe false).
I would not have downvoted your post, if it was written as YouTube-alternative in general (without focus on privacy). But that was no a good tip for someone looking how to setup PeerTube in a specific way.
While I would not recommend tor for video streaming, the speed fully depends on the route videos get streamed. Maybe you can watch in 4k, maybe 360p is not even loading or stream just gets interrupted and reloading can make thing better or worse. Overall not a good experience, but also not impossible.
I don’t know better how to host an instance better than kuebic described. But if you can tell your use case, someone of use may can give some good advises what alternatives you have to reach the same goal (in example a PeerTube community server which you access via TOR etc). But it depends a bit what you really want to achieve.
If you want to host a server at home and make it publicly available, without advertising where you live, you can rent a cheep VPS and use a VPN connection to it, combined with port forwarding to publicly appear at the VPS IP-Address.
If you are renting any server in a different country it should be difficult for your government to do anything about it, assuming you aren’t doing any illegal shit. The latter will get you in hot water with your server provider and the officials in the country of that provider.
With Tor you’d have to run a hidden service. That would give you actual anonymity. But it also isn’t great for bandwidth heavy applications like video streaming.
I strongly advice to not do things that bring or encourage harm to others.
If you are just prosecuted in your country because you are opposing the powerful, any operation you setup in another country, especially one not on the best terms with your own, should be just fine. Just make sure, that your provider has no information on your identity. You’ve already gotten good advice for that.