People often take one to be the synonym for the other and vice versa.In a nutshell the Dark Web is classified as a small portion of the Deep Web that has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible through standard web browsers. Most content that resides on the dark web is found on the Tor network. You can get acces to the Tor network via a special browser called the Tor browser.
The contrast between the deep web and the dark web is often visually described by comparing it to an iceberg. Imagine, for yourself, an iceberg:
Surface Web
Above water is all content average internet users peruse on a daily basis. This is your Facebook.com, reddit.com, your justice.gov, your harvard.edu.
Deep Web
Right below the surface of where the iceberg meets underwater is the deep web.
It’s comprised of the same general hostnames as sites on the surface web, but along with the extension of those domains.
This is the specific URL of your Facebook Messenger thread with a friend, or the Department of Justice’s public archival material, or Harvard’s internal communications system. The deep web is the majority of the internet as a whole.
Dark Web
The dwindling portion at the very bottom of the iceberg is a subset of the deep web that’s only accessible through software that guards anonymity.
Because of this, the dark web is home to entities that don’t want to be found.
To expand on that visual, it’s necessary to explain that the dark web contains URLs that end in .onion rather than .com, .gov or .edu.
The network that these .onion URLs reside on cannot be accessed with the same browser you use to access your Facebook messages, the justice department’s archive or your Harvard email account. You can use a simple Chrome or Safari to access these.
The dark web requires a specific software program (the Tor browser) to do the trick, and it offers you a special layer of anonymity that the surface web and the deep web cannot.
As such, the dark web is a place for people and activities who don’t want to be found through standard means.
It’s complete with illegal trade markets and forums, hacking communities, private communications between journalists and whistleblowers, and more.