The deep web's lack of censorship and accountability makes it a double-edged weapon, says Stuti Pachisia.
When Freud segregated the areas of the mind into the conscious, unconscious and subconscious, he compared the unconscious mind to the bulk of the iceberg, submerged beneath the water. The metaphor exceeds beyond mere size when it is applied to what is known as the deep web. As users whose lives are Internet-centric and Internet-dependent to a fault, we have barely scratched the surface of the Internet, which spans far beyond what meets the eye. Just like the unconscious mind/iceberg beneath the water, we cannot even begin to fathom the endless, dangerous possibilities that exist in the Internet’s underbelly, in what is known as the deep web.
The deep web is an ocean of untapped information that cannot be accessed through standard search engines. Unlike the surface web, which we access through browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, the deep web can only be accessed through deep-web browsers like Tor and I2P, which provide anonymity to the user.
Using browsers like Tor and I2P is not technically illegal. In fact, a lot of Internet users switched over to these anonymous browsers following Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA mass eavesdropping programmes. This period witnessed a sharp increase in Tor downloads, with net users becoming more concerned about their privacy, as all sites on the deep web use untraceable .onion domains. (After all, Snowden’s whistleblowing revealed that even the NSA was not able to penetrate through the Tor network.) This makes the deep web a Shangri-La for any kind of content to be viewed and shared.
Using browsers like Tor and I2P is not technically illegal. In fact, a lot of Internet users switched over to these anonymous browsers following Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA mass eavesdropping programmes.
It is quite easy to gain access to these websites. The right browser and a basic set of precautions grant the user complete access to the deep web. Browsers like Tor route one’s connections through other people’s computers, and by choosing to “forbid scripts globally” on Tor, one can mask one’s identity.
The anonymity of the user is fundamental, which is why torrent sharing is strongly advised again while using Tor, as torrents send out the actual IP address of an individual’s computer in the tracker GET request. Once you’ve taken the basic precautions, it is not a tough road from there on to find .onion links to most Deep Web sites, through a site known as The Hidden Wiki.
Of course, this all-encompassing and anonymous nature also makes it a potential haven for serious criminality. One of the most famous deep web sites was Silk Road, an anonymous marketplace where practically any item could be bought and sold, ranging from drugs to child pornography to hackers for hire to arms and ammunition. Payments could be made through Bitcoins, and purchases would arrive in untraceable packages.
This convenient arrangement came to a grinding halt with the 2013 arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, accused of being “Dread Pirate Roberts”, the website’s creator. (A federal judge sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison without the possibility of parole on 30 May.) Within a couple of weeks Silk Road 2.0 was set up by Blake Benthal, but it would also be shut down following a Europol crackdown called Operation Onymous. Sister sites, however, continue to spawn on the deep web, trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities.
Not all deep web sites are illegitimate, and some of the links to deep web sites can be found even through surface web browsers. Some of them are also legal, or at least legally grey, such as certain secure whistle blowing sites. To offset the jeopardy of some .onion sites being uncovered by intelligence agencies, websites linking several deep web users to each other exist. Sites like ‘Onion Chat’ maintain the anonymity of the user, while providing them with a platform to interact and exchange deep web links.
In fact, the deep web’s near-anonymity allows people living under harsh Internet censorship, as in China, to publish anonymously. Not only does the deep web act as a platform for discussion and exchange of ideas, its untraceable nature enables the Chinese to avoid the censorship that comes with using the surface net in China. Here, users discuss issues of censorship and freedom freely. Administrated by the pseudonymous “King”, conversations take place primarily in Mandarin, and comprise global issues, an online marketplace and even discussions of how to build a bomb.
The deep web is complex, layered and intricate. This cornucopia of endless possibilities is dangerous because of this very endlessness, which cannot be withheld or curtailed.
Therein lies the problem of the deep web: because it has virtually no censorship and accountability, it is a weapon that can be brandished for the collective good as well as the potential bad. On the surface, it is almost utopian—a world devoid of any kind of restrictions or laws—but there is only a fine line between utopia and anarchy. With websites selling ammunition and narcotics anonymously, it is more anarchical than ideological. Therefore, there have been resultant crackdowns from various intelligence agencies on the deep web. During the crackdown on Silk Road, penetrating through Tor was not possible, therefore the FBI had to resort to conventional methods like sting operations and physical seizure of servers.
The deep web is complex, layered and intricate. This cornucopia of endless possibilities is dangerous because of this very endlessness, which cannot be withheld or curtailed. If anything, as Internet users turn increasingly to the deep web, further anonymity is granted to every individual, as it operates on the premise that it conceals the identities of its users by bouncing their information through a massive network of servers.
Mike Bergman, founder of BrightPlanet and credited with coining the name, said that “searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed.” The deep net is growing in fathomless amounts every day, and shows no signs of stopping. Not only is Freud’s internet/unconscious more than what meets the eye, it grows deeper and deadlier every passing day.
