The dark web is a mysterious and often misunderstood part of the internet. Here are some of the most surprising facts about it, based on insights from Redditors:

General Facts About the Dark Web

• AWS and Internet Infrastructure: Amazon, through its AWS (Amazon Web Services), owns a significant portion of the cloud and physical internet infrastructure. If AWS crashes, a large part of the web could go dark. "Most people think Amazon is just an online shop operated by minimum wage workers. Amazon also owns a bunch of the Cloud and physical Internet infrastructure, and that's a massive part of its revenue."

• Fragile Physical Backbone: The internet's physical backbone, especially undersea fiber-optic cables, is surprisingly fragile and vulnerable to natural disasters, accidents, and sabotage. "Undersea fiber-optic cables carry over 95% of international data, linking continents through a few strategic routes."

• Google's Dark Side: Page 2 of Google search can be surprisingly eerie, almost as if Google itself gave up on indexing useful content. "Page 2 of Google is where you realize... even Google gave up. But if you really want to see how dark it gets, welcome to the Dark Web."

Strange and Disturbing Content

• Child Pornography: The dark web is infamous for hosting illegal content, including child pornography. "About 6 years ago I went on it with my best friend and we found out a guy in our town was selling CP so we tracked down his IP and had him arrested."

• Fake Red Rooms: There are many fake "red rooms" on the dark web, which are often just scams. "The dank Web is just a meme. Yeah it has some sketchy stuff on there, but it's almost all just random bs like fake red rooms (real ones don't exist), narcotics storefronts, and random blogs people made."

• Live Streamed Murders: Some parts of the dark web have reportedly featured live-streamed murders. "Live-streamed murders, kinda fucked up..."

Positive Uses of the Dark Web

• Journalism and Communication: The dark web can be used by journalists and activists to communicate securely in oppressive regimes. "One of the reasons why TOR was developed by the US government in the first place was to help get information in and out of oppressive countries."

• Honest Business Practices: Surprisingly, some illicit markets on the dark web have honest business practices due to peer reviews and reputation. "Honestly most drug markets on the dark web and the encrypted apps are really well run and very honest."

• Access to Restricted Information: It can be used to access blocked materials or safely contact those fearing persecution from an oppressive government. "The protections it provides for those without the ability to speak freely is incredibly useful!"

Myths and Misconceptions

• Over-Exaggerated Dangers: The dangers of the dark web are often over-exaggerated by urban legends. "The dark net has been very over exaggerated by urban legends and things like that over the years."

• Fake Hitmen: Many hitman services on the dark web are fake and often honeypots set up by law enforcement. "The hitmen are almost always fake, a Honeypot to set you up by police or just a guy who will take your money."

• Red Rooms: The existence of real red rooms is often debated and likely a myth. "Red Rooms…a theory that they existed…but some dark web explorers stated there never existed..🤷‍♂️"

Personal Safety and Exploration

• Safe Exploration: It is generally safe to explore the dark web if you avoid downloading suspicious files and looking for illegal content. "Yes. It's pretty damn safe if you don't download anything or look for fucked up shit"

• Data Protection: Finding your personal information on the dark web is possible, but removing it is almost impossible. "Once the info is out there, there's no fixing that."

For more discussions and information, consider visiting these subreddits:

• r/AskReddit

• r/TOR

• r/NoStupidQuestions