Are there any news sites on the darknet that are not controlled by big media / censored?

I was wondering because I really have no idea the kind of media censorship we have, and I want to know if there are news sites specifically on the darknet that aren't controlled by big media. A nonprofit news site would be ideal, like democracynow.org but for the darknet. Also, is it legal to use darknet as long as I don't buy / download anything illegal?


Comments


[9 Points] None:

[deleted]


[4 Points] rappercake:

I don't know of any darknet news sites, you can be pretty uncensored on the clearnet if you want to (Stormfront for example). The darknet is legal to use/access as long as you don't do anything illegal while on it, same as the regular internet.


[5 Points] deepdot:

I know one (that tries to keep up :) .


[2 Points] PerpetualPlusFour:

There are plenty of independent media sites on clearnet. I'm a communist, so you can imagine how I feel about big corporate interests controlling mainstream media news sources, but even I think it sounds a little silly and paranoid to think that someone who wants to post their own take on current events would need to use the darknet to avoid... I don't actually even know what they would be trying to avoid in that case. Fox News putting a hit out on them? Thought police arresting them for spreading their doubleplusungood ideas to the unsuspecting public?

Also, there is no such thing as perfectly 'objective', unbiased news coverage. Covering the news requires making a ton of subjective judgments about what stories are worth covering, and any language you use to describe a situation will be based on certain implicit assumptions about the world that will color your perception of the 'objective' events unfolding before you. To be blunt, I would probably trust any self-proclaimed "objective, unbiased" news site on the darknet even less than I trust CNN or MSNBC. The darknet is a wonderful tool, but it attracts a lot of libertarian ideologues and conspiracy theorists whose idea of what "objective, unbiased news" looks like is not something I have any interest in reading.

Besides, the fundamental purpose of using the darknet is to hide your identity. If you don't know who is writing the news you're reading, how can you know it's more trustworthy than the mainstream media? Like I said before, there's no such thing as perfect objectivity in news coverage; IMHO, the best you can hope for is to know as much as you can about the subjective biases and points of view that influence the news sources you read,

There is not much in the way of Orwellian "nobody can know about this event!" censorship in the mainstream media. It's more a matter of media entities choosing not to cover certain stories as much as they should, or downplaying the significance of popular movements that conflict with their corporate masters' financial interests. Don't trust cable news to inform you about a protest or demonstration that you want to be more informed about - see what they have to say about it, but also seek out statements and publications from the protesters/demonstrators themselves explaining the situation from their point of view. The truth isn't always "somewhere in the middle" - that's a logical fallacy, and sometimes one side of an argument is just wrong - but understanding multiple perspectives on a situation is very helpful in developing a more complete understanding of the situation. You can't really be confident that Group X's view on the situation is completely accurate until you take a look at Group Y's counterarguments and determine that Group Y is full of shit.

Many small subreddits are excellent sources of alternative perspectives on current events. I'm fond of /r/communism, but if you are not a Marxist and want to discuss, debate, or ask questions about the Marxist point of view, you'd be better off posting to /r/communism101 or /r/DebateACommunist.

As for legality: there is absolutely nothing illegal (at least in the US) about using Tor or accessing .onion sites. It is actually used by many journalists as a tool for communicating with sources who require anonymity. Obviously there are lots of illegal things being done over the darknets, like 99% of transactions made over the DNMs that this subreddit is about, but using the darknet is not any part of what makes those things illegal (it just makes those illegal things easier to get away with). Some very security-conscious techies actually use Tor as their primary web browser.


[1 Points] white_anarchist_teen:

Indymedia is great, although it's not on the darknet.