Freedom Hosting
Tor web hosting service
Freedom Hosting was a Tor specialist web hosting service that was established in 2008. At its height in August 2013, it was the largest Tor web host.
Anonymous denial-of-service attack
In 2011, Anonymous launched Operation Darknet, an anti-child pornography effort against activities on the dark web. One of the largest sites, Lolita City, hosted by Freedom Hosting, was subject to a denial-of-service attack (DDoS), and later had its member list leaked following an SQL injection attack, as was The Hidden Wiki which linked to it.
Federal investigation
In 2013, through undisclosed investigative methods, the FBI identified the IP address of a server that appeared to be associated with Freedom Hosting. The server was hosted by OVHcloud and was contracted under the name of Eric Marques. On July 22, 2013, pursuant to a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) request to France, U.S. law enforcement received a copy of the data and information from this server. The server contained several encrypted "containers" for which law enforcement was unable to determine the content at the time. By July 30, 2013, investigators, through the use of cryptanalysis, were able to determine the password for the server's superuser account ("root"). This enabled law enforcement to obtain an unencrypted copy of the server's contents, confirming that the server was indeed hosting the Freedom Hosting website.
The public source identifies “Freedom Hosting” as tor web hosting service. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Freedom, Hosting and hosting.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Freedom Hosting”, the useful work is to connect “tor web hosting service” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14723862. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2013 and 2011.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Freedom Hosting”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Freedom Hosting primary sources, Freedom Hosting archive and Freedom research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Freedom Hosting”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Freedom Hosting” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.