From the course: Tor and the Dark Web: Exploring the Basics

Who uses the dark web? - Tor Browser Tutorial

From the course: Tor and the Dark Web: Exploring the Basics

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Who uses the dark web?

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- [Instructor] The dark web seems like a shadowy place, and our first inclination might be to presume that it's exclusively the domain of criminals. That is, in fact, one of the major uses of the dark web. For obvious reasons, anonymous web traffic attracts criminals who seek to engage in transactions, while hiding their identity. For example, this hidden website offers to sell counterfeit Euros in transactions where the identities of both the buyer and seller are protected. Like most elicit transactions on the dark web, the seller, here, is requesting payment in Bitcoin, an anonymous cryptocurrency. Of course, the buyer is going to need to provide a shipping address for the fake bills, and that provides a way to trace the transaction to a physical location. But the seller can remain anonymous. Criminal activity is the highest profile use of the dark web, and it's immediately what people think of when they consider the potential for totally anonymous communication. But there are also perfectly legitimate uses of the dark web, as well. For example, the Washington Post operates a hidden site on the Tor network. This site, of course, is not trying to be anonymous, itself. You can see the Washington Post logo right there. The purpose of this site is to provide news sources with a way to securely communicate with Washington Post journalists, without revealing their identity, and remaining safe from eavesdropping. This use of the dark web helps individuals protect their identity from prying eyes. The dark web is also used to help bypass government censorship in regions of the world where normal internet access is restricted. Users who access the Tor network can bypass government firewalls and content filtering to access the internet, without the oversight of government authorities. The dark web also provides a place for the free discussion of political topics, and other sensitive issues, without the fear of recrimination. For example, many dissident groups are known to use the dark web to communicate with each other, while evading detection by oppressive governments. The bottom line is that the dark web provides many different groups of people with the ability to communicate anonymously over the internet. Whether that anonymity is used to protect media sources, evade government censorship, or even engage in criminal activity, the underlying technology is the same.

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