I think the Tor Network is similar to the clear web in that it can be used the way its users want it to be.

Mind you, if you look to buy drugs on Instagram or Facebook you’ll find many outlets.

Your experience is limited to the markets because that’s what you were after presumably.

We created the BBC Tor site to help audiences access BBC News where they can’t and also to provide more secure access if they want.

You probably don’t know how bad the internet in China or Iran is. Imagine you can’t access any news site other than the government’s own outlets, and forget about social media.

We expected our Tor site to serve more users in Iran but interestingly we found more users coming to BBC Chinese, BBC Mundo and BBC Portuguese.

We think we are getting more users from Hong Kong and Brazil who are doing it for the sake of privacy rather than circumvention (our clear web sites are still accessible in Hong Kong).

At times when the news flares up, we get more users for BBC Russian, presumably because news consumers there want to have access to an independent source of news.

BBC site on Tor:

https://bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh774...