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Proxies often silently install adware extensions. Remove anything you do not recognize from Chrome/Firefox/Edge.

To the uninitiated, it was just a string of text. But to Aryan, it was a key turning in a rusted lock. The original site had been hunted down, blocked by Internet Service Providers acting on court orders, its digital doors bricked shut by the authorities. But the internet, like water, always finds a crack.

A proxy server acts as an intermediary between a user's device and the internet. When a user requests access to a website or online content, the request is sent to the proxy server, which then forwards the request to the destination server. This process masks the user's IP address, making it appear as though the request is coming from the proxy server's IP address instead.

Authorities play whack-a-mole with these proxies. Here is the cat-and-mouse cycle:

If you have visited or downloaded from a proxy, do not panic, but take immediate action: