If you live in a country where you don’t have internet freedom and face extreme censorship, here are the top news sites on the dark web.
- BBC World – a dark web version of BBC news covering stories related to politics, sports, society, and culture.
- The New York Times – a dark web version available since 2017, covering impartial and unbiased news.
- ProPublica – an award-winning website for investigative journalism that aims to expose abuse of power and betrayal of the public.
- Archive Today – a reliable platform that indexes and saves old news stories and blogs and provides updated news.
- Flashlight – a reliable and informative news platform for people living in restricted regions.
- Deutsche Welle – a German state-owned broadcasting site that provides news on politics, sports, science, business, and the environment.
- The Intercept – is an informative news site that features content about the trending issues related to politics, war, technology, environment, national security, and justice.
- Radio Free Europe – a US-based radio broadcasting organization that provides authentic, uncensored news and debates on trending topics.
- Secure Drop – a secure and reliable news platform that allows journalists to share sensitive documents and information securely.
- Tor Metrics – a news platform dedicated to Tor, covering news about unusual events and the latest update about Tor’s ecosystem and its apps.
- The Hub – a popular dark web forum that allows discussions on various topics.
Internet censorship makes it impossible to stay updated about the latest events and access accurate information from reliable news sources. The government is blocking many deep news sites, including social media platforms in various countries, to stop readers from browsing the news outlets. Also, journalists are banned from sharing any news with the public.
Still, there is a way out, i.e., accessing the dark web news sites that allow journalists and whistle-blowers to dig out and share the unfolded news stories without fear. The readers can also access authentic news information worldwide despite their location or censorship issues.
Several news websites on the deep and dark web dismantle real and factual information about current events worldwide. Apart from the illegal activities and goods on the dark web, it’s a great platform that helps circumvent censorship, ensure anonymity, and promote freedom of speech. Since the dark web is often a shady place for hackers and other cybercriminals, ensure you access the news sites safely.
Using the Tor network to access the dark web is complicated and gives a slow browsing experience. An alternative method is to use a VPN that helps bypass censorship and access your news site. If you still want to access these Dark web news site versions, it’s highly recommended to use VPN to get a more secure connection on Darknet.
Best dark Web News sites
The dark web is a great platform for whistleblowers and journalists who share credible and exciting facts under the veil of anonymity. It allows people to bypass internet censorship and block news websites. You can find a good range of dark web news platforms that are not available on the surface web or even the dark web versions of some popular websites.
Here’s the list of the best dark web news sites that you need to visit in 2024:
1. BBC World
Destination URL: bbc.com
Seeing the BBC World News among the best dark web sites might shock many people. However, the news outlet maintains the dark web version for people living in countries where the original news website is blocked due to censorship by the totalitarian government.
People can access this news site and stay updated with global news. The website is the same as the original one and covers news in all categories, including politics, sports, society, and culture.
2. The New York Times
Destination URL: nytimes.com
The New York Times is a popular platform to get impartial and unbiased news. This even includes news that criticizes the army or government of any country. An oppressive regime won’t tolerate this and will restrict you from accessing it by blocking the news website. Like BBC World News, the NYT publication has also had a dark web version since 2017. Within this version, it’s easy to browse the latest happenings around the globe.
3. ProPublica
Destination URL: propublica.org
ProPublica is an award-winning news site on the dark web that produces investigative journalism with moral force. It aims to expose abuse of power and betrayal of the public by the government, businesses, or any other industry. The dark web news site comprises over 100 dedicated journalists covering various topics, including politics, education, technology, business, criminal justice, health care, environment, and immigration.
It was the first major news outlet to launch its dark web version that runs on hidden services. The journalists here present the in-depth content as videos, podcasts, in-depth featured articles, or researched reports. You can also share some story ideas or suggestions with the team and sensitive documents through SecureDrop that might help them in future research.
4. Archive Today
Destination URL: archive.ph
Archive Today is another reliable dark web news discovering platform to read blogs and articles besides up-to-date news. It takes and stores screenshots of the web pages on the surface that will always be published online, even if the original pages are removed. In addition, it saves a graphical and a text copy of the web page that allows the readers to go back and search for news or other informative content on the web that’s published on a specific date.
This news website is more useful to journalists as they have to find out what information was contained during a specific time and is subject to change. The saved pages will have no active elements, such as scripts, so they are free from malware and viruses.
5. Flashlight
Destination URL: flashlightnews.net
Flashlight is another great news site on the dark web for people living in a highly censored region with limited access to news. It primarily covers worldwide news; here, you can find news and featured articles about the latest political developments in any corner of the world.
However, the biggest concern of this dark web news site is the appropriate ads. The website features several advertisements, most promoting unethical content, so you should use a reliable ad blocker while browsing the news sites.
6. Deutsche Welle
Destination URL: dw.com
Deutsche Welle is a German state-owned broadcasting site that, like BBC World News and The New York Times, has maintained a dark web version. The news outlet provides journalistic content in 32 languages and, thus, is a leading media institution in Europe. It allows users to read news about what’s happening in politics, sports, science, business, and the environment. In addition, it has a 24-hour English-language TV channel available worldwide.
It strives to promote internet freedom and primarily focuses on human freedom, democracy, social justice, and good governance-related topics.
7. The Intercept
Destination URL: theintercept.com
The Intercept is another dark web news site built on the slogan of original reporting and fearless journalism. It includes news, featured articles, blogs, videos, and podcasts about the trending issues of politics, war, technology, environment, national security, and justice.
Besides this, this news website covers some special investigation reports about the misery people are experiencing in Afghanistan and Russia. It also shares raw source materials and documents in the news or in-depth featured articles.
Anyone who wants to share their insight or raise their voice about an issue can contribute to the site. This makes the news site an ideal platform for journalists and whistleblowers. They can share their unbiased opinion and enjoy the editorial freedom and support required to expose injustice, corruption, or whatever they find wrong.
8. Radio Free Europe
Destination URL: rferl.org
Radio Free Europe is a US-based radio broadcasting organization that provides authentic, uncensored news and debates in countries without the freedom of the press or its threats. You can read and listen to the latest news through this Onion site.
It has a vast network of local reporters that gives access to news in 27 languages in 23 countries. Also, it offers fellowship programs for aspiring future journalists to fight for media freedom in their countries.
9. Secure Drop
Destination URL: securedrop.org
SecureDrop is yet another reliable dark web news site to share sensitive documents without the fear of getting caught. It is an open-source submission system that whistleblowers or journalists use to submit documents from anonymous sources to media organizations and NGOs.
This submission system is available in 20 languages and managed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Many renowned news outlets, including The New York Times, ProPublica, and The Intercept, use SecureDrop to share information safely without the involvement of third parties and hackers.
10. Tor Metrics
Destination URL: metrics.torproject.org
Tor Metrics is a news resource about the Tor browser that the developers of the Tor project own. It collects news about unusual events and the latest updates about Tor’s ecosystem and its apps. Besides this, it also gathers and archives the data obtained from the public Tor network, making the Tor browser a great resource to improve your browsing experience on the dark web.
The news on the dark web is mainly for understanding and improving the Tor network. Missing out on any news from this site means journalists or the general user misses out on a chance to enhance their anonymity or further defeat censorship on the web.
11. The Hub
Destination URL: thehub.io
The Hub is one of the most popular dark web forums, allowing multiple discussions on various topics, including global news, cryptocurrency, dark web marketplaces, and more.
However, the website only allows registered users to participate in discussions or read the news. Hence, to get a hand on the latest news, register for an account by setting up a username and password and then browse the Onion site.
How to safely access Dark Web News sites
Accessing the dark web is difficult and comes with significant security risks. Most dark web pages are not regulated, while other sites are common hubs for scams and infecting your device with malware or viruses. Thus, you need to take some safety precautions when using it to access dark web news.
Two methods that allow safe access to dark web news sites include:
- Set up a Tor browser – Anonymizes the data traffic by changing the IP address.
- Use a VPN – Encrypts the data and helps in bypassing censorship and ISP throttling.
Both are reliable methods that ensure security and anonymity while you use the dark web for reading news stories.
Set up Tor for Dark Web News Sites
The Tor browser is a private web browser that anonymizes internet traffic using the onion network to protect your online identity. The onion network routes the internet traffic through random proxy servers that maximize your online protection. Also, as the traffic goes from one server to the other, it hides your IP address and ensures maximum anonymity on the dark web. Hence, using the Tor browser is a safe and secure method to access dark web news sites.
Furthermore, the Tor browser relies on a global network of volunteer nodes that provides layered encryption. It masks your location, thus preventing ISPs or government surveillance agencies from learning about the websites you visited.
Using a VPN for Safety
Using a VPN on dark web news sites is vital to protect your online identity and to browse the web anonymously. It encrypts the data traffic and prevents the ISPs from seeing that you have downloaded the Tor browser on your device and used it to connect to the Tor servers.
In addition, a reliable VPN provider hides your IP address and location from the ISP and other snooping eyes. This ensures you access dark and deep web news sites and maintain online anonymity. This way, a VPN offers users double protection on dark web news sites.
Moreover, a VPN helps bypass censorship and offers dark web-centric features, making it easy to use Tor in countries where it is blocked. Also, the VPN’s fast connection speeds ensure you won’t experience slow and sluggish speeds.
Other Safety Precautions to follow
Here are some more tips you need to keep in mind and follow while accessing your favorite dark web news sites:
- Configure the Tor browser settings for maximum anonymity and protection as you search for news on the dark web.
- Use reliable antivirus software as it efficiently detects and removes malware and viruses that might infect your device while on the deep web news sites.
- Ensure that you access the dark web news sites using the dark web search engines because they keep your searches private and show results that mainstream search engines won’t show.
- Avoid clicking pop-up links or messages that demand URGENCY on the news sites. These phishing messages might redirect to some bogus site that asks for your personal information and targets you for identity theft.
- There’s a risk that dark web news sites often bombard you with several ads, and most are intrusive, annoying, and inappropriate to see. Hence, ensure you use the best ad blockers to wipe out such ads.
- Create a dark web email address for reading dark web news.
- If the news site requires you to register for an account, don’t use your actual name and email address, as it can be traced down.
With these tips and a VPN on the Tor browser, you can browse dark web news with maximum online protection.
Conclusion
Browsing dark web pages is risky and adventurous at the same time. Though these web pages contain many unrevealed facts and news, at the same time, they can expose you to malware or other online threats or put you in legal trouble. To be a responsible reader of dark web news sites, take the necessary security measures. This includes setting up the Tor browser to access the dark web news pages. Since the Tor browser provides anonymity but not enough privacy, it’s also important to use a VPN.
A VPN encrypts the data traffic and hides the IP address, which hides your activities on the dark web from prying eyes. Besides this, run antivirus software, adjust the Tor browser settings, and do not expose your true identity while you browse the dark web to read news.
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About the Author
Waqas is a cybersecurity journalist and writer who has a knack for writing technology and online privacy-focused articles. He strives to help achieve a secure online environment and is skilled in writing topics related to cybersecurity, AI, DevOps, Cloud security, and a lot more. As seen in: Computer.org, Nordic APIs, Infosecinstitute.com, Tripwire.com, and VentureBeat.
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