It’s late one night and you can’t sleep. You
toss and turn, but can’t seem to doze off . So, you pull out your computer and head to some of
your frequented online forums. You are on your favorite subreddit r/infographicsshow when
suddenly a popup blocks your screen. The box is all black with red lettering. It reads:
“Do you like the Red Room?” The Red Room? you think. What is that? You shrug and go to
close the popup. As soon as you click on the creepy message another window appears. A list
of people’s names who have accessed a Red Room before begins scrolling across your screen.
The list ends. An ominous message is left for you to read. It says: Everyone who accessed
the Red Room is now dead, will you be next? You slam your laptop shut and sit in the
darkness. You are breathing heavily as sweat pours down your face. Well, that was
creepy, you think. Your curiosity gets the better of you and you begin doing research on
what Red Rooms are. One of the first things you find after a quick search is an account
from a blogger who knows about Red Rooms. The blogger explains he knows a friend of
a friend who once paid to view a Red Room on the Dark Web using cryptocurrency. The Red
Room user went deep into the Dark Web using the anonymous browser called TOR. It was the only way
to reach the real Red Rooms, because of the insane stuff that happens in them. The user logged in
and waited. The live stream video was of a room covered in translucent tarps. In the middle of the
room was a chair. In the top right hand corner of the screen was a countdown. The user had three
minutes to wait before the show would begin. When the countdown got to zero one of the tarps
was pulled back. A tied up man was escorted in by a hooded figure. The captive was secured in
the chair and the hooded figure left the room. He then came back with a pushcart piled high with
tools and instruments of torture. The man tied to the chair began to scream and plead for mercy.
But there was none to be had in the Red Room. The user was able to vote for different ways to
torture the man. The executioner would read the messages and do it. But there was a catch. The
user said that in order to suggest a torture people watching the stream had to pay using
untraceable cryptocurrency. The person with the highest payment got their torture of choice
carried out. The user explained that this went on for around twenty minutes until someone
made a monstrous donation to have the captive killed. The execution was carried out
live on the Red Room video for all to see. You are a bit skeptical that something as horrible
as torture and murder could be found on the internet. Also, this description, like every
account of Red Rooms you find, all happened to be second, third, or fourth hand accounts. It
seems like Red Rooms are tied to the Dark Web, yet when you do a quick Google search for
‘Red Rooms’ a bunch of sites come up. Yes, they are all either scams or old sites that no
longer work, but they were relatively easy to find. This makes you think that people made up Red
Rooms to scam others and it evolved into an urban legend. But the weird popup from earlier in the
night still haunts you. You need to learn more. You decide to uncover more about what the
Dark Web is and how it is tied to Red Rooms. After some research you find that the
Dark Web is a relatively small collection of Websites that are not indexed by search
engines, such as Google or Yahoo! In fact, you discover that there are only about 2000
unindexed sites that make up the Dark Web. When you compare this to the regular internet,
which contains well over a billion sites, you are surprised at how small of a niche the Dark
Web actually makes up of total virtual content. Supposedly the only way to access these sites
is to use open source anonymity tools to uncover the hidden IP addresses. Browsers like
TOR make it incredibly difficult to determine what is on the Dark Web and who is there,
unless you know what you’re looking for. The Dark Web is based around anonymity so
it appeals to bad people doing bad things. You scour the internet for more information
about Red Rooms. It is clear they are video streams of people doing terrible
things like torture and murder, but do they really exist? Can you actually find
one that is streaming live? From everything you’ve read it seems unlikely. Most videos
that claim to be Red Rooms are obviously just scams trying to steal people’s money. “What
a time to be alive,” you say sarcastically. As you go deeper and deeper into your
research you find an interesting rumor. It is claimed that the term Red Room has
been around for decades. The name may have its origins in the movie The Shining where
‘red rum’ is written out in lipstick on a door. Later the movie reveals that what is
really being written is murder backwards. Another hypothesis of where Red Rooms got their
name is from the 1983 horror film Videodrome. In this movie torture is shown on live TV in a
room painted red. Both ideas for the name of Red Rooms seem plausible. What doesn’t seem plausible
is that they actually exist on the internet. People have been known to do terrible things on
the internet, especially when their identity is a secret. You don’t have to go to the Dark Web
to find websites geared towards racism, hate, and cybercrime. All of that can be found right
on the regular internet. As you dive deeper into your research on the twisted world of the Dark
Web, you come across a site that is claiming to be currently live streaming a Red Room. You are
hesitant, but you need to know if it is real, so you click on the link. It takes you to a
video in progress. You think it’s odd that a Red Room video would be easily accessible on the
regular internet, but like so many others your curiosity gets the better of you. The video in
progress shows a woman being tortured by a man. The torturer is using different tools to
inflict pain. Blood sprays everywhere. The man disappears behind a curtain. This can’t be
real, you think. He comes back into view as the shrieks of the hysteric captive fill the room. In
his hand is a bone saw. A look of terror crosses the female’s face. She struggles against the
ropes holding her to the top of a wooden table. The man holds up the saw and brings it down onto
one of the female’s squirming legs. He puts his back to the camera and begins sawing. He is
blocking the actual leg, but you can hear the screams and see the spraying blood covering
the tarps that line the room. You are horrified. But what is even more scary than the Red Room,
are the comments of the anonymous watchers. They seem to be enjoying the torture. They
are making suggestions on what to do next. You can’t stand it anymore. You pull yourself
out of the shock and grab your cell phone. You are about to call the police when the
screaming stops, the man turns towards the camera and smiles. The female sits up, unties
the ropes, and hops off the table. They take a bow. It was all just a show. No real torture
happened, but it was still really messed up. Now you are convinced that Red Rooms are
either scams or gruesome staged videos, where no one is actually tortured or killed.
But then you stumble across claims that have been circulating the Dark Web forums. The
rumors say Islamic State terrorists have been captured and will be tortured in
a Red Room. The live stream is set to begin in just a few minutes. This seems like a
twisted form of justice, but could it be real? Deep in the Dark Web the site where the Islamic
State fighters are to be tortured and killed goes live. A countdown starts. More and more people
join the Red Room live stream. There is a lot of hype around this video, it seems legit. But right
before the Red Room is about to begin, the site is taken off line. Hours later the site comes back
with a page that thanks everyone for watching, and a 21 minute video of a guy being force
fed bacon. It seems like it was all a hoax. Yet again the Red Room was a fake. You uncover no
real evidence that Red Rooms currently exist or ever existed. At this point you are convinced
that Red Rooms are all just an urban legend. As you look back at all of the research
you did over the past few hours you find holes in the Red Room myths. For example,
the TOR software may allow people to remain anonymous on the Dark Web, but due to
restrictions in what can be run, it is virtually impossible to stream any videos. The
buffer rate would be just too slow to be viable. Also, the fact there is virtually no first hand
evidence of Red Room viewing is a big red flag. All accounts are from people who heard rumors
from a friend. Or an account that was found on forums that can’t be verified. It would seem
the Red Room urban legend has captivated the minds of people who search for crazy stuff
on the Dark Web, but no real evidence for their existence has been uncovered. Maybe it is
because people are too ashamed of what they did or saw. But people are not too ashamed to cyberbully
or spread hate on the internet, so watching a Red Room video does not seem to be something
people would be afraid to admit they’ve done. Even on the Dark Web people can be found given
enough time and resources. The F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies have arrested people
who engage in child pornography on the Dark Web. If Red Rooms existed, there is no reason to
assume that people committing torture and murder would not eventually be apprehended. This is just
more evidence that the Red Rooms do not actually exist. There are clearly terrible people, doing
terrible things, on the Dark Web and the regular internet. But when laws are broken they tend
to be brought to justice one way or another. There have also been reports that hackers who use
their abilities for good, have analyzed a number of different Dark Web sites such as Red Rooms.
They have found these sites to not be genuine. One hacker named Cthulhu analyzed a number
of Dark Web sites and found they were set up with no real concern for security. If terrible
things are happening in Red Rooms which could land the creator in jail, you would think security
should be their number one priority. But this does not seem to be the case, which means that the
Red Room sites are most likely scams or fakes. You close your laptop and lay back in bed. You are
relieved that the horrors of Red Rooms have been shown to be fake. But deep down inside you know
that people are capable of some crazy things. Maybe if you went deeper and deeper
into the blackhole of the Dark Web, you would find a real Red Room. It is a scary
thought, but the internet can be a scary place. You lay awake looking at the ceiling. So much
for trying to go back to sleep, you think. Now check out more Dark Web videos with
Why You Should Never Visit The Dark Web. Or if you can’t help yourself watch Super
Easy Way To Access the Dark Web (How To).
