the.com/dark web
the internet's basement — same building, no landlord, way fewer smoke detectors.
means a hidden layer of the internet only reachable through special software like Tor, built to keep both visitors and hosts anonymous.
from grew out of Tor, a US Naval Research Lab project from the 1990s designed to protect government communications by bouncing traffic through encrypted relays — the anonymity that shields spies also shields everyone else.
size mythactually tiny, not 90 percent of the internet
not illegalusing tor itself breaks no laws
journalists use itactivists and whistleblowers rely on it too
onion routingnamed for layered encryption, like an onion