71% Want The Dark Net Shut Down, Showing Most Have No Idea What The Dark Net Is

from the blame-the-tools dept

Much like encryption, Tor and the dark net are frequently demonized. One, because they're simply poorly understood by the vast majority of the public. And two, because like any tools, they can be used for good, evil, or old-fashioned chaos. That this isn't the tool's fault is -- for some annoying reason -- a very difficult idea for some people's brain matter to digest.

The latest case in point is a new survey by Ipsos of 24,000 people worldwide, commissioned by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The survey found that 71% would like to see the dark net shut down. More specifically, 36% "strongly" felt this way, while 35% "somewhat" felt this way. The full survey was conducted across 24 countries (pdf), and found that the percentage of those pushing for this shut down was greater in some countries than others:

...The survey findings demonstrate that citizens in some countries are much more likely than others to believe the “Dark Net” should be shut down: those in Indonesia (85%) and India (82%) are most inclined to believe it should no longer exist, followed by residents of Mexico (80%), China (79%), Egypt (79%), South Africa (77%), Pakistan (76%), France (76%), Great Britain (76%), Brazil (73%), Canada (73%), Australia (72%), the United States (72%), Turkey (71%), Tunisia (69%), Italy (68%), Germany (67%), and Poland (65%). Among the least likely to believe the dark net should be shut down are Japan (63%), Nigeria (62%), Hong Kong (62%), Kenya (61%), South Korea (61%) and Sweden (61%).

In other words, a majority of citizens not only think the dark net should be shut down, but they're also making it very clear they have no idea what the dark net is. Shutting down the dark net would require finding and shutting down some 7,000 secret Tor nodes worldwide. Given how well anti-piracy efforts have gone in trying to shut down BitTorrent websites using IP addresses on the public Internet, just how well do people think this really would go? And that's just Tor; you'd also need to shut down other dark net access avenues like I2P or Freenet, then magically ban any new technologies from being developed.

In other words, it's simply not happening. After some scary references to child abuse and assassinations, the press release from the Canadian think tank that funded the survey effectively acknowledges as much:

"The anonymity of the technology of the Dark Net cuts both ways — while people can use the network for villainous purposes, people can also use it for good," said Eric Jardine, CIGI research fellow and Dark Web expert. "Despite public opinion, shuttering anonymity networks is not a viable long-term solution, as it will probably prove ineffective and will be costly to those people that genuinely benefit from these systems."

So, yes, while you certainly can order high-grade Afghan heroin over the dark net, those able to look past their fear for a few moments usually realize it's also an incredible tool for whistleblowers, political dissidents, and anybody else that may not want an oppressive or just plain old over-eager government sniffing and rifling through their communications. Babies, bathwater, etc.

Filed Under: dark net, encryption, tor

How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

from the hidden-virtues dept

Despite a few daring experiments in the space, the dark net (or dark web, if you prefer) is generally seen as a dangerous, frightening place inhabited by terrorists, pornographers and general ne'er-do-wells. That makes a report in The Guardian about drug dealers moving online unusual, because it shows how the dark net can also be beneficial to society:

Research into internet drug markets by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) suggested the self-regulation of online markets such as Silk Road provide a safer environment for users and dealers of illicit substances.

Feedback mechanisms similar to eBay mean customers are able to hold dealers to account for the service they provide, the report said, while remote access to the market almost eliminates the risk of violence that has long been an integral part of the black economy.

Moving online not only safeguards drug users from violence and theft when they buy drugs in the physical world, it provides a natural way for customers to provide feedback on the quality of the drugs provided. Just as with traditional e-commerce companies, drug dealers who go digital can no longer risk bad customer reviews by providing inferior or dangerous products, since their future sales are likely to suffer. As a result:

Drugs available through darknet markets tend to be of a higher purity than those available on the streets.

The new report comes from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which is funded by the European Union, and, as usual, is accompanied by an official comment from the relevant EU commissioner. Unfortunately, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, trots out the usual unthinking reaction to drug sales that has made the long-running and totally futile "war on drugs" one of the most destructive and counterproductive policies ever devised:

We should stop the abuse of the internet by those wanting to turn it into a drug market. Technology is offering fresh opportunities for law enforcement to tackle online drug markets and reduce threats to public health. Let us seize these opportunities to attack the problem head-on and reduce drug supply online.

That blinkered attitude ignores the important advantages moving drug sales from the physical world to the digital one brings not just for for users and dealers, but also for society as a whole, which does not have to deal with the social and economic consequences of violence on the streets, or with the long-term damage caused by poor-quality products. Along the way, his remarks inevitably and unhelpfully reinforce the view that the dark net is evil, and thus is something to be destroyed.

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Filed Under: crime, dark markets, dark net, quality, safety, trust