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).