ProPublica has become the first major news website in the world to release a version of its website that’s optimized for the Dark Web. Although the Dark Web has a nasty reputation, and for good reason, it’s also an important source of news and other kinds of information that people in places like China or Iran wouldn’t be able to find on the regular Web. In a world where corporations and governments are watching everything you do on the Web, it’s important to have a way to maintain your anonymity while online, so it’s good to see that companies like ProPublica understand this, and actually try to promote and support the use of anonymity tools.
The Dark Web is like the internet’s evil twin. It’s where the digital world makes its underhanded, often illegal, exchanges and thanks to the Tor network, all of this can be done under cloak and dagger. There are people who operate legally on the Tor network, of course, and they enjoy the privacy of being virtually untraceable, and can even access a more secure and private version of Facebook. And now they can also enjoy some investigative journalism, courtesy of ProPublica, which has just become the first ever news publication to launch on the Tor network. Speaking to Wired about the launch, Mike Tigas, ProPublica’s Tor developer, said the inspiration for this came about when the publisher was working on a story about China’s online censorship. Ironically, the people in China that the report was aimed at would only be able access it using an unconventional browser, like Tor. ProPublica wants its readers to be able access its news, without having to worry about being traceable. Tigas added: “Everyone should have the ability to decide what types of metadata they leave behind. We don’t want anyone to know that you came to us or what you read.” By providing its readers with secure, unmonitored access to its journalism, the site should be able to reach a a wider audience.
