Tor’s a Poet and Now You Know It: Poems From the Dark Side

The Torist, the first magazine for the anonymous Tor network has been created, providing a channel into the dark world for budding writers.

"There's no reason our innocent activities — creative or mundane — should be wiretapped, and there's every reason that they shouldn't be," G.M.H., the magazine's anonymous co-founder, told WIRED. G.M.H. says he sees the Torist as another entry point into the dark web for budding writers keen to keep things encrypted.

The darknet exists in cyberspace beneath the radar of standard Internet search engines — which is a particular bugbear for governments — including Britain, which is keen to pass a law allowing its police forces and spy agencies access to private encrypted data held by Internet companies.

The darknet can be anything from a social media site — a forum — to a search engine. Authorities are always concerned it provides a space for criminals and extremists.

Research into dark web activity concurs and often points towards criminal activity. Two academics recently discovered that 57 percent of the material on Tor was illicit.

"The results suggest that the most common uses for websites on Tor hidden services are criminal, including drugs, illicit finances and pornography involving violence, children and animals," Professor Thomas Rid and PhD student Daniel Moore from Kings College London suggest.

The Torist was developed by G.M.H. and Robert Gehl, a communications professor at the University of Utah, to bridge the gap between the dark underworld and the surface of the worldwide web — and provide a space for poetry and literature amongst all the illicit material.