Testimony of the former moderator of the "Red Room"

I saw things... things that shouldn't exist. I was a moderator at HiddenReality, one of the deepest and most secure platforms on the Onion network. Our job was to filter content, remove obviously illegal content (child pornography, instructions for making explosives), and maintain "order" in the chaos. Naive fools like us thought we were doing something useful. The main attraction of Hidden Reallity (fake name for greater anonymity) was the so-called "Red Rooms". Legends about them have been circulating on the darknet for twenty years. On the air, for bitcoins, it was possible to order a "performance". Allegedly. I never believed it. Until I saw it for myself. One day, a notification appeared in my stream – "Room 7 is activated. Streamer: Unknown." I checked the logs, the IP was better masked than usual. I thought someone had found a new way to bypass the protection. Curiosity got the better of him. The picture was grainy, almost black and white. The room looked like a basement: bare walls, a dim lamp, a man chained to a chair. Man. His face was hidden under a bag. The chat was already feverish. The bets began to fall. "Take off the bag - 0.5 BTC" "Chop off a finger - 1 BTC" "Set fire to gasoline - 5 BTC" The numbers grew. With each new sentence, my heart was pounding harder. I wanted to close the broadcast, but it was as if I was paralyzed. Someone entered the command: "Remove the bag." The man jerked and screamed through the fabric. The cameraman (probably it would be correct to call him that) approached him with a knife. The bag was ripped off. I recognized him. It was David, a guy I'd crossed paths with a couple of times on the HiddenReality forum. He posted conspiracy theories, nothing criminal. He was... the usual one. His eyes were filled with terror. He was looking directly at the camera, as if he was begging for help. But there was no help. The money kept coming. I don't remember any further.I turned off the broadcast, wrote to tech support, and informed the administrators. I was told that it was a "technical error", that I was "overworked" and sent on vacation. After the "vacation" my account was deactivated. I was thrown out into the street like a dirty rag. I tried to tell the police, but they didn't believe me. They said that I had read horror stories on the Internet. Yes, maybe. But I know what I saw. And I know that David doesn't write on the forums anymore. The scariest thing is, you know what? It seems that this "technical error" is being repeated. Room 7 is active almost every night. And I'm sure David wasn't the first. If you think that the darknet is just a place to buy drugs and stolen credit card numbers, you are deeply mistaken. There are real monsters living there. And they are not afraid. They're enjoying themselves. I'm writing this here, anonymously, because I'm afraid. I'm afraid they'll find me. I'm afraid I'm next. But I had to tell you. Someone has to know. Don't look for adventures there. Stay out of things that don't concern you. This is a world that must remain in the shadows. Otherwise, the shadow will swallow you up.
Be careful.