The Deep Web's Quiet Rebellion: A Historical Perspective

 

While a number of legal websites reside on the deep web -- including paywalled publications, private databases and academic journals and research -- the vast majority of sites are illicit. The deep web is home to illegal marketplaces where criminal activity takes place, such as black markets for stolen credit cards, personal information and firearms, malware, sex trafficking, drugs and cyber-attack services like access to botnets. It also houses the dark side of the internet, including websites that support neo-Nazi and white supremacist rhetoric and extremist groups.

The combination of an encrypted network hidden from most of the world and a transactional currency that is nearly impossible to track has created a shadowy marketplace that allows drug dealers, arms brokers and other corrosive societal elements to operate in relative anonymity. Over the past few years, international regulators and law enforcement agencies have made significant progress in addressing this challenge by improving information sharing, sharpening their technical capabilities to take down illicit marketplaces and regulating the transfer of cryptocurrency transactions.

But as these efforts continue, some observers are raising concerns that the government's approach will compromise fundamental liberal principles and could even encourage the kinds of criminal activities that led to the rise of the dark web in the first place. For example, some advocates worry that protecting political dissidents and privacy advocates should not come at the cost of empowering child abusers, arms traffickers and other criminals who use the dark web to hide their activities from government authorities.

Others, however, argue that the government's success in tackling the threat of the dark web is more a testament to its effectiveness at global counterinsurgency operations abroad than a failure of domestic law enforcement to effectively address violent crime in urban communities.

Whatever the truth, it is clear that the deep web offers a wide variety of legitimate and valuable content that could not be easily accessed without it. Every time you log into your bank account online, log in to Facebook or sign into your Netflix account, you are accessing the deep web. So, when people argue that the deep web is dangerous and it's dangerous to go there, they are expressing an opinion based on their experiences with pop media, which has been filtered through layers of confusion, misunderstanding and superstition.