This article explores darknet browsers as tools for accessing the anonymous darknet network, their types (Tor, I2P, Freenet), working principles, and technical features. It focuses on the opportunities these browsers offer for both legitimate activities (freedom of speech, privacy protection) and criminal ones (drug trafficking, weapons trade, cybercrime). The use of darknet browsers for illegal purposes and counter-measures against this activity are analyzed.

darknet, dark web, Darknet browsers, Tor, I2P, or Freenet, onion routing, сreation and management of illegal marketplaces, сommunication between criminal groups, distribution and purchase of illegal content, organization of financial fraud, combating crime on the darknet, international cooperation/

Goldsmith, J., & Wu, T. (2006). Who controls the internet? illusions of a borderless world. Oxford University Press.

Greenberg, A. (2019). This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information. Penguin Press.

Olson, P. (2012). We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency. Back Bay Books.

Swan, M. (2015). Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy. O'Reilly Media.

Tor Project official website: https://www.torproject.org/

I2P official website: https://geti2p.net/en/

Freenet official website: https://freenetproject.org/

Europol (European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation): https://www.europol.europa.eu/

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation): https://www.fbi.gov/

Academic research papers on darknets and cybercrime (Search through scientific databases such as IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Scopus).