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FEATURE ARTICLES

                  THE DARK SECRETS OF “RED



                                                 ROOM”




            Ms. Gayathri L Nair



           As strange as it sounds, “Red Rooms” are those alleged spaces within the
           dark web that conceals illegal and illicit activities, happening online. It is

           also considered to be “online video portals” wherein people can pay mon-
           ey to watch different live streams and videos of torture, murder, rape, and

           even worse. Allegedly, the users have paid over tens of thousands of dollars
           to gain access to these gruesome clips.



           What is the dark web?
           What is the dark web?
           As we all know, the internet consists of millions of web pages, servers, and
           other databases that are split into three distinctive layers; surface web,

           deep web, and the dark web. Being the top layer and the so-called “visible”
           layer of the internet, the surface web includes those web pages that are

           found using search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.


           If the entire internet is visualized as an iceberg, the surface web would be
           just the visible tip of the iceberg that lies above the water and comprises

           nearly only 5% of the whole internet. Talking about the deep web, it ac-
           counts for almost 90% of all websites and lies below the visible surface. It

           is nearly impossible to figure out the exact number of web pages or servers
           that are active in the deep web at any given point in time.



           The dark web is also a section of this deep

           web and includes sites and websites that
           are accessible only through limited and

           specialized browsers. Although the “deep
           web” and the “dark web” are usually con-

           sidered the same, a huge fraction of the
           deep web is safe and legal, unlike the dark

           web. The status of the dark web is often
           associated with criminal and illegal activi-

           ties, encompassing certain “trading” web-






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