Fact-Checking Policy

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026 · Checked by Ehtijad Ali

Every fact on this website is checked before we publish it. This page tells you exactly how we check things, so you can judge our work fairly.

Our main rule

If getting something wrong would matter to you, then we must have seen the proof ourselves. If we have not seen proof, we must say we are not sure.

There is no middle option. We never write confident sentences based on something we half remember. And we never hide a weak fact behind words like “many people believe” or “reports suggest”.

Which sources we trust most

Not all information is equally good. Here is our order, strongest first.

Rank	Type of source	How we treat it
1. Official papers	Court documents, police notices, government reports	The strongest proof. But remember: a charge is an accusation, not a finding of guilt.
2. Technical manuals	How a technology is officially built and documented	Best proof for how something works. We always check the date and version.
3. Things we can see	Saved web pages, public data, official statistics	Strong. We say what we saw and when we saw it.
4. Named experts	Real researchers with names and reputations	Good. We always name them. We never write “experts say”.
5. Security companies	Reports from companies that sell security products	Often the only data available. But they are also selling something, so we name the company.
6. Other news sites	Articles by other journalists	Useful for finding stories. We trace the fact back to the original before we use it.
7. Anonymous posts	Forum posts, leaks with no proof	Never enough on its own. Only used if something else backs it up, and always labelled as unproven.

What we check, and how

Numbers

Every number must have a clear starting point. Who counted it? When? How?

We also check whether a number got twisted along the way. This happens a lot. A surprising number of famous “dark web statistics” turn out to come from one old slide that nobody can find any more. If we cannot find where a number came from, we do not use it.

We are extra careful with numbers about crime. Almost all of them are estimates, not counts. We say so.

Quotes

We check quotes against the original recording or document, not against what another website said the person said. We check who said it, when, and what they were talking about. We never cut a quote in a way that changes its meaning.

How technology works

We check these against the official manuals, not against what people usually say. Dates matter a lot here. Something that was true about Tor in 2015 can be completely false today, so we date these facts and check them again when we update an article.

Blaming someone

Saying who did a hack is the claim most likely to be wrong, so it needs the strongest proof. We say who is making the accusation, what proof they have shown, and how confident they say they are.

We also keep four words separate, because they are very different: accused, charged, convicted and sanctioned.

Dates and history

We check dates against records written at the time, not against stories told years later. Later retellings tend to tidy things up and get the order wrong. That is why our Timeline is built from original records.

When we are not sure

A lot of what we write about is genuinely unclear. We would rather admit that than pretend. These words each mean something specific:

• Proven — we have seen an official record.
• Reported — a trusted source we can name published it.
• Accused or charged — someone has been blamed, but nothing is proven yet.
• Estimated — a best guess, with the method shown.
• Claimed — someone says it, but nothing backs it up.
• Disputed — good sources disagree, and we show you both sides.
• Unknown — nobody knows. We say this often, because it is often true.

Our Conspiracy Files section turns these words into a fixed structure, so you can see the proven parts and the guessed parts side by side.

Our checklist before publishing

1. Every fact has a source. Not a general feeling about the topic — an actual source.
2. Every link is opened and read, to check it really supports the point.
3. Every number is traced back to where it started.
4. Every quote is checked against the original.
5. Every name, job title, company, date and place is double checked.
6. We reread each claim and ask: is this really proven, or only reported?
7. The headline and summary are checked against the article, in case they promise too much.
8. Anything that fails gets fixed, softened, or deleted.

When sources disagree

Sometimes two trusted sources say opposite things. We do not quietly pick a favourite. We show you both, explain what each one is based on, and say which we find stronger and why. If the question cannot be settled, we say that too.

After publishing

Checking does not stop when an article goes live. We check again when we update it, when a court case moves, when technology changes, or when a reader challenges us. If a fact fails that later check, our Corrections Policy takes over, and it says we must fix it openly.

Think we got something wrong?

Please tell us. We would much rather hear it from you than leave a mistake sitting there. Email ehtijadalee@gmail.com with the page, the exact sentence, and what you think is right.

More about how DeepHiDX works

• About UsWho we are and what we cover.
• AuthorsWho writes here and how.
• Editorial PolicyHow every article is made.
• Corrections PolicyWhat happens when we get it wrong.
• Sources & ResearchThe trusted places we get facts from.
• Contact UsHow to reach us, safely.