Investigating Red Rooms
As it would be dangerous to attempt to search for one myself on the Tor browser, all of our information comes from secondary sources such as stories from people claiming to have experienced real life red rooms first hand. Essentially, red rooms are live streamed snuff films, films where the actors actually die, and often have an interactive component where, for a fee, viewers can tell the host what to do to the victim. There is much speculation as to whether these are actually real or a hoax, but either way we feel this would be a very interesting and unusual idea to be the basis of our film trailer.
Two of the major stories about red rooms are the ALICIA room and the ISIS room. ALICIA was stylised as A.L.I.C.IA., and many wondered whether this stood for something or was just the name of the girl they claimed to be torturing. The website consisted of ALICIA in large red writing with Portuguese text underneath and a countdown timer.
The design of this room is extremely simplistic and gives away little detail of its purpose. The idea of including hidden text only visible by highlighting would also be an interesting concept to think about using. Another hidden bit of information is found within the actual source code of the website, which shows more hidden messages in Portuguese.
At the end of the timer on the website, it was claimed by viewers that a livestream began however nothing actually happened. The general consensus was that this red room was actually a hoax, which was speculated at first because of the easy access. If red rooms are in fact real, there's no way they'd be available so easy, but would require users to dig deep into the dark web and be provided with links in order access them.
The other dark web red room that has received widespread attention due to its easy access was the ISIS red room, which claimed to have a real ISIS member who they were going to torte live on camera in 2015.
Unlike the ALICIA red room, a 'livestream' (could've just been a prerecorded video) was actually played on this website, and can still be accessed even on the clear web today. However, the 'torture' was not what the viewers had expected and it wasn't graphic in any way. The host was seen holding a hammer before the video glitched and the supposed ISIS member was seen with blood dripping down him. Therefore, there is no way to know whether the video was faked or if it genuinely glitched at this moment.
The disappointing (to those who want to witness what these sites supposedly have to offer) outcome of these two red rooms is what has led many people to claim that the infamous streaming services are just a fairytale. One of the strongest arguments against them is that it would be virtually impossible to stream a high quality video over the Tor browser used to access darknet sites due to the number of redirects, IP scramblers and proxies used to keep everything anonymous. While it's highly possible to play a pre-recorded video, many doubt that this footage is able to be streamed in real time.
However, there are counter-arguments that suggest red rooms do in fact exist, just not in the way originally thought. Rather than being able to come across them when browsing the deep web, extensive searching is required in order to gain access to them. They are very difficult to find; people spend hours scouring directories and other links and often need to be given a direct link. Even at this point, they may need to receive an invitation to actually gain access or even be subject to a background check. Users may often be required to download custom browsers and programs to be able to view the video due to the lack of streaming potential over the onion router.
The design of this room is extremely simplistic and gives away little detail of its purpose. The idea of including hidden text only visible by highlighting would also be an interesting concept to think about using. Another hidden bit of information is found within the actual source code of the website, which shows more hidden messages in Portuguese.
At the end of the timer on the website, it was claimed by viewers that a livestream began however nothing actually happened. The general consensus was that this red room was actually a hoax, which was speculated at first because of the easy access. If red rooms are in fact real, there's no way they'd be available so easy, but would require users to dig deep into the dark web and be provided with links in order access them.
The other dark web red room that has received widespread attention due to its easy access was the ISIS red room, which claimed to have a real ISIS member who they were going to torte live on camera in 2015.
Unlike the ALICIA red room, a 'livestream' (could've just been a prerecorded video) was actually played on this website, and can still be accessed even on the clear web today. However, the 'torture' was not what the viewers had expected and it wasn't graphic in any way. The host was seen holding a hammer before the video glitched and the supposed ISIS member was seen with blood dripping down him. Therefore, there is no way to know whether the video was faked or if it genuinely glitched at this moment.
The disappointing (to those who want to witness what these sites supposedly have to offer) outcome of these two red rooms is what has led many people to claim that the infamous streaming services are just a fairytale. One of the strongest arguments against them is that it would be virtually impossible to stream a high quality video over the Tor browser used to access darknet sites due to the number of redirects, IP scramblers and proxies used to keep everything anonymous. While it's highly possible to play a pre-recorded video, many doubt that this footage is able to be streamed in real time.
However, there are counter-arguments that suggest red rooms do in fact exist, just not in the way originally thought. Rather than being able to come across them when browsing the deep web, extensive searching is required in order to gain access to them. They are very difficult to find; people spend hours scouring directories and other links and often need to be given a direct link. Even at this point, they may need to receive an invitation to actually gain access or even be subject to a background check. Users may often be required to download custom browsers and programs to be able to view the video due to the lack of streaming potential over the onion router.
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