Trust & Legal
Fact-Checking Policy
Every factual claim on Learn Dark Web is checked against a reliable source before publication. This page explains what that check is, what counts as enough, and what happens when we get it wrong.
The pre-publish check
Before a page goes live, every factual claim in it is checked against a reliable source. This is a separate step from writing: the draft is read claim by claim, and each claim is matched to a source that actually says it. A claim with no source behind it does not survive the check — it is cut, or rewritten so the page says only what the source supports.
The sources we trust most are primary ones: the Tor Project, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), CVE.org and the National Vulnerability Database, certifying bodies, and official law and policy pages. News reports and other guides help us find leads, but they are not the final word on a fact — the primary source is.
Artificial intelligence assists with drafting, but it is never a source and never the checker. Every AI-drafted claim is verified by hand against a primary source before publication. If it cannot be verified, it is removed.
Contested claims need two independent sources
Some claims are contested — reputable sources disagree, or the claim is disputed. Those need two or more independent sources before they are published. Independent means genuinely separate: two articles quoting the same original survey are one source, not two. Where the disagreement matters to the reader, we show both sides on the page rather than picking one. Where it does not matter, we leave the claim out.
Statistics need a named primary source
A statistic on this site always has a named primary source and a date. A percentage, a count, a fee or a timeline is published only when we can trace it to the body that produced it — a government statistics office, a standards body, a certification issuer, an official report. Second-hand figures quoted by blogs are not published as fact.
In this field many figures conflict across sources, and the conflicts are often honest — different years, different methods, different definitions. When we find a figure we cannot verify against a primary source, we do not publish it. Instead we link to the official source and tell the reader to check the current figure there. That is why you will not find some figures on this site at all: a missing number is better than a wrong one.
What "verified" means on this site
When we describe a fact as verified, we mean that a human checked it against a named, reliable source before publication, and the source is named on the page or in the page's sources. "Verified" does not mean "proven forever": laws change, fees change, guidance is updated. Anything that can change — a law, a country restriction, a fee, a statistic — carries a "last checked" date on the page, and we review those pages on a schedule.
What we still do not publish
- Unverified claims presented as fact. If it was not checked, it is not stated as fact.
- Fabricated statistics, experts or credentials. No invented numbers, no invented people, no invented job titles or qualifications.
- Allegation presented as confirmed fact. In incident coverage especially, what is alleged stays labelled alleged until a reliable source confirms it.
Found an error? Email [email protected]. We verify every report, correct confirmed errors, and note the correction on the page with a date. Full process: our Corrections Policy.
Corrections process
Fact-checking does not stop at publication. When a reader reports an error, we verify the report against a reliable source. If the error is confirmed, the page is corrected and a dated correction note is added to the page. Material facts are never fixed silently. The full process is in the Corrections Policy.