Cyble plays a key role in this landscape, offering AI-powered threat intelligence and digital risk protection. All messages are encrypted, and the company does not log your IP address. Popular news publications like The Washington Post, The Guardian, TechCrunch, and more have set up their own SecureDrop URLs so whistleblowers can contact them effortlessly. SecureDrop claims that all the messages you send and receive are encrypted in transit to prevent third parties from intercepting them. One of its journalists, Hannah Dreier, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her coverage of gangs in Los Angeles.

Can I Search The Dark Web From My Phone?

But onion sites can also serve nobler goals, like providing access to information and independent journalism in countries with government censorship. You can’t access these .onion sites from your normal web browser like the one you’re probably viewing this page on. Before clicking any of the dark web links below, you’ll need to get the Tor Browser (also called the Onion Browser) or another service that provides dark web access, such as the Brave browser. Onion sites aren’t really dangerous, but they could be when accessed through unfamiliar or suspicious links. The dark web is part of the internet that is not indexed by standard search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Why Are Onion Sites So Slow?
Many prominent media sources and journalists maintain a presence on this website location to securely accept documents from anonymous senders. These include big names, such as Al Jazeera, CBC, Forbes, Huffington Post, The New York Times, and many more. Onion sites are dark web sites that can only be reached through online routing via Tor, in which encrypted data passes through multiple nodes before reaching its destination. Decrypting the data involves peeling back layer upon layer of encryption, hence the “onion” analogy. SecureDrop uses Tor to provide a safe way for whistleblowers to contact various news outlets. Prominent organizations like The Guardian, The New York Times, and ProPublica have implemented it.
Do I Need A VPN To Use The Dark Web?
DuckDuckGo is the default search engine for the Tor browser, which shows its commitment to user privacy. Unlike other popular mainstream browsers, DuckDuckGo doesn’t store your online data. In addition, it doesn’t create user profiles based on browsing history meaning that you won’t be seeing personalized ads or search results while using it. These search engines catalog .onion domains, which are not easily accessible from regular web browsers.
Its goal is to offer anonymous access to the content without being censored, no matter where you live. The good news is that the BBC Onion site is an international edition. As a result, it not only focuses on the UK but also provides worldwide news.
Are Dark Web Search Engines Legal?
The dark web is a part of the internet that you only step into with a specific tool (Tor, more on this later in the article). Though people usually think of dark websites as the wrong online place, that’s not the complete truth. Although the underground internet world is rife with everything bad, it also hosts positive elements.

Best Dark Web Sites 2025 – Detailed List
- Before we get into dark web search engines, let’s get into what the dark web is.
- Whether you’re looking for personal advice while shopping on the dark web or you want to discuss a wide range of topics, Dread has you covered.
- You’ll get unbiased, organic search results without getting any of your browsing behavior logged.
- It will route your traffic through multiple servers instead of one, making tracking your data and activities even harder.
- Instead, onion sites are derived from a cryptographic key and must be accessed using the Tor browser.
That’s why we always recommend using a VPN over Tor—even if you feel you have nothing to hide. This just involves turning on your VPN before you open Tor and connect to dark web sites. While technically not an onion site, we’re including Sci-Hub (sci-hub.se) as an interesting example of a site you can access via Tor. Sci-Hub gives access to millions of scientific papers, mostly ones from behind paywalls. However, due to copyright infringement, Sci-Hub is considered illegal and banned in many countries. Unlike Ahmia and Haystak, however, DuckDuckGo doesn’t search .onion sites.
- The BBC remains one of the most visited news platforms worldwide, with over 438 million users each week accessing its content across various channels.
- The nice thing about Ahmia is that it lists .onion sites that want to be found.
- Since activists, journalists, and advocates need the dark web to communicate securely, find evidence, and bypass censorship, it remains a tool for privacy and free expression.
- Also, the platform has a feature of automatic deletion of messages – set a timer and they will be deleted after a set period.
- For instance, in the UK, any book older than 70 years old (past the date of the author’s death) is no longer subject to copyright restrictions.
Top 7 Dark Web Marketplaces
With rising online privacy concerns in the current digital age, the Tor network’s anonymity is becoming essential. It is a good way to prevent third parties from tracking online activities. People in countries with heavy internet censorship must get a VPN or Tor browser to access the surface web.

August’s Top VPN Discounts
However, the 28-year-old researcher was adamant cryptocurrency wasn’t the problem, at least in the case of Welcome to Video. The site, described by officials as being “among the first of its kind to monetize” child porn using Bitcoin, was driven — and funded — by cryptocurrency. Son was arrested by Korean, American, and British authorities in South Korea on March 5, 2018. The 23-year-old had previously been identified after law enforcement discovered Welcome to Video hadn’t concealed its server’s IP address, which they later learned was registered in his name. Authorities seized Son’s server, which contained hundreds of thousands of child porn videos.
This is a public domain, where you can talk about anything from crony capitalism and animal liberation to pandemics. Raddle has forums for every subject you want to express yourself on. Speak your mind here without fear, as onion links are immune to censorship.
Recon allows users to search for specific products from dark web vendors and marketplaces as opposed to just the sites themselves. Haystak is one of the most comprehensive dark web search engines, with a search library of more than 1.5 billion pages. It has a freemium model with ads, and a paid version for ad-free browsing and extra features. However, there are plenty of legal and legitimate online activities that require privacy and anonymity. The dark web is used by journalists, whistleblowers, and political activists who need the protections that it offers.
How To Find Dark Web Websites
Since privacy and security are a concern while using the dark web, the websites you visit must have the encryption necessary (HTTPS, preferably) to protect you. The search engine has indexed over 400,000 pages, and you can ask it to match your exact search term. You can easily find what you are looking for, even links to hidden dark web rooms. With ZeroBin, you can easily exchange encrypted messages within the dark web.