Whenever you think of the dark web, you are likely to shape it as a nefarious place of illegal activities. In your subconscious mind, you might think of forking out Bitcoin (BTC) to hire a hitman or buying a baby. The dark web is the wild west of the mainstream internet, where the reputed black market Silk Road had operated.
The deep web and the dark web are sometimes termed the “Scary Web” due to their restricted accessibility. It could possibly also be due to the mythology and folklore surrounding it. But the darknet is a lot more different than what you might just believe.
Let us backpedal to find the initial trial of the dark web. The darknet was around when the internet was discovered. However, it got a kickstart in 2000 when Freenet was released. Freenet is a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for conducting censorship-free communication. The dark web is also backed by another critical puzzle piece, the rise of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency became famous in the 2010s that kept the financial transactions secured and opened up the black market zone.
How Do You Access The Dark Web?
Firstly, the dark web is a term for the search engine unindexed part of the internet. It contains websites that never show up on the regular search engine queries. The dark web links come with the .onion extension, which the Tor browser can only access. This is because the .onion links are available on the Tor network.
Roger Dingledine has massively contributed to the dark web project. He is an MIT graduate who founded the Tor Project in the early 2000s. The term “Tor” means The Onion Router. The aim of onion routing has been to create a maximum privacy-protected zone on the internet. The basis was routing traffic via multiple servers and encrypting it every step in the process.
Additionally, you would require a premium VPN to hide your IP address through which your location can be traced. It would also offer you the opportunity to visit those geo-location-specific websites. These websites are generally inaccessible to a particular country. When you use a server of a different country via the VPN, you can access the otherwise blocked content.
So, where do you get Tor from? Well, you have to download the Tor browser compatible with your system from The Tor Project website. Install the software and run the VPN at the same time. After this, you can use the browser and get into the websites.
Moreover, Tor was created mainly as a tool for safeguarding against mass surveillance. We already know about Edward Snowden’s opinion about this whole issue and the urge for a decentralized search engine. In almost all of the steps, your data undergoes chances to be sold to a third party. The target ads displayed when we are online are a colossal mind-attraction because our web searches are being traced and acknowledged.
What Does The Dark Web Need To Do?
As already said before, the dark web has been much misinterpreted. Thus, the dark web really needs to rebrand itself as a massive communication channel at one level. It needs to put out that it helps people communicate in environments restricting free speech. For instance, consider China, where the Chinese freely use the dark web to host discussions without fear of the feds.
Interestingly, Facebook even has its .onion version of the social media platform. It allows the residents of those geo-location blocked countries to participate in it through the darknet links.
More such websites must surface the dark web, which can someway rebrand and reshape the idea of the dark web.
Is it just a wholesome arena of free speech?
Well, no. The dark web is also the house for a lot of evil shits. The researchers at the London-based King’s College had classified the contents of 2,723 darknet sites over five weeks. They found that 57% of those websites host illegal materials. You can purchase Social Security card numbers (SSNs), various types of prescription and non-prescription drugs. You can also buy a lifetime membership for Netflix. You would be able to find bulk discounts on the stolen credit cards that are sold on well-structured e-commerce websites.
People also sell descriptive guides on “how to do crimes”. This also includes how to hack someone’s account (Facebook or Email) and how to open fraudulent accounts. What’s more? There is also stuff like money laundering, child exploitation, trading the stolen credentials, and skimmer devices. The skimmer devices are utilized to get hold of the bank data and sell them in the dark markets.
The Silk Road had managed to gather $80 million in just two years. The account “Dread Pirate Roberts” had mentioned that the criminal model had been made obtainable via cryptocurrency. The Silk Road crackdown had increased the total number of dark web drug sales.
Talking of the scams, there are plenty of them on the clear web and the darknet. One instance had made the statement prominent. Googling “Buy Live Tiger” takes you to some of the listings where people are waiting to sell a live tiger. But on inquiring, you will be able to get that most of the responses are scams and that they request additional fees for the shipping and stuff.
With the hitman-for-hire services floating on the dark web, you might think that hiring a dark web hitman is as easy as spreading butter on the bread. But reality checks come when they ask for additional fees, and on not paying them, they threaten to see the police with your request.
The dark web is a much-complicated place. It allows us to be more secure and private. It enables an individual to enjoy a lifetime Netflix premium package. But, they can also experience a surge in predatory data collection at a commercial level.