Should (and could) the dark web be shut down?

“The same technologies used by drug dealers and child pornographers to hide their identity
can also be used by whistleblowers and dissidents in repressive regimes.”

The dark web is a platform which assists a vast amount of criminal activity, including
common crimes like drug sales and more serious issues like human trafficking and illegal
pornography. However, it also has its benefits, serving as a motive to leave the Dark Web
as it is. Journalists and whistleblowers use the dark web to communicate anonymously,
and civilians in countries facing censorship use the dark web to know what is happening in
other areas of the world. Surprisingly, the development of the dark web was funded by the
US government themselves to help spies securely exchange information. Additionally,
people would argue that although the dark web is used as a tool for crime, shutting it
down would not stop these crimes; criminals would only find alternative means, possibly
moving the crimes to an area even harder to regulate. Shutting down the dark web would
likely be an impossible task; it is not run on one server, but plenty, which are individually
managed and can be quickly set up if one is taken down. For that reason, the very idea of
shutting everything down could be futile.

A commonly made argument is that the dark web has created an environment
which enables criminal activity. Its untraceable element makes it easy for criminals to hide
their identity, committing many crimes without having to worry about law enforcement.
Tracing actions back to people is an extremely difficult task, even for talented hackers. Tor
carries every request through three servers; the first one only knowing the source, the
third only knowing the destination, and the second a transmitter between the two. In
2015, two researchers at KCL – Daniel Moore and Thomas Rid – studied almost 3,000 sites
on the dark web. 57% hosted illicit material. Another study done at the University of
Surrey suggests that this number could have increased by 20% by 2019. The vast number
of crimes happening are a strong reason to want the dark web gone, especially with the
additional fact that although some of these crimes are as simple as drug sales, they can
range to much more serious issues like child pornography or human trafficking. A study by
Gareth Owen found that sites containing child abuse/pornography could make up 80% of
Tor’s hidden services. In addition, the sheer number of people using these services is
horrifying. In 2018, it was estimated that 144,000 users in Britain alone were using the
dark web to access child pornography. Additionally, a child abuse site named ‘The Annex’
had around 90,000 global users. Is keeping such material available justifiable?

However, the benefits of the dark web cannot be dismissed. Journalist or

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whistleblower, stated: “You are being watched and recorded. … you don’t have to do
anything wrong. You simply have to fall under suspicion from somebody. Even by a wrong
call.” A study done in 2015 estimated that only 40% of activity on Tor had nefarious
purposes. When the Covid-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, China, information about the
virus was initially censored, so doctors were unable to reveal the threat. However, the dark
web was used to post updates on the progression of the virus. The dark web also allows
people living in countries with repressive regimes which restrict the internet to connect to
the rest of the world by accessing news or social media platforms through the dark web.
Facebook and the BBC both have a .onion version that can be accessed through Tor,
accessible for those in repressive regimes. It also means that people can have more
freedom of speech; most people would not feel safe saying things on the surface/deep
web, even if it claims to be encrypted. An article on Carleton states: “Social Media
platforms are not neutral, open spaces and it is clear that corporate interests do not align
with activist needs. Social media design and policies are also often in tension with activist
social media goals and needs.” Tor’s decentralised servers and multilayered encryption
mean it is nearly impossible to trace actions down to the source, allowing people under
repressive governments to dissent freely without being tracked and targeted by their
government.

However, browsing the dark web is dangerous and complicated, making it easy to
stumble into unwanted or even incriminating content. The dark web is extremely hard to
navigate due to the lack of standard search engines and the complicated URLs – usually a
combination of random numbers and letters. URLs also change constantly, meaning some
dangerous sites are one misclick away. Although visiting the dark web is legal in the UK,
you could easily come across pages that are a crime to visit, such as certain kinds of
pornography. Additionally, browsing the dark web at an early age can have negative
psychological impacts that are downright dangerous to not just the person, but society as a
whole. Scarlett Jenkinson, a teenage killer, admitted to having accessed the dark web at
fourteen and watched a “mixture of violent stuff, including murder and torture.” It was
reported that: “Girl X (Scarlett) – the 15-year-old who befriended Brianna and then plotted
to kill her – had downloaded a special browser on her phone in order to access the dark
web and watch snuff movies.” The content this girl consumed likely impacted her mental
state and may have influenced her to commit this crime. Given the fact that it is hard to
control what you see when browsing the dark web, many young, curious people may open
the dark web and stumble across traumatic content. Is the dark web worth sacrificing the
well-being of our youth and societies?

One of the main issues for shutting down the dark web is the fact that doing so is
most likely impossible. The dark web is an extremely complex network that can be
accessed from more than one browser – although Tor is used by most. It is made up of

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countless servers, making the dark web decentralised and controlled by much more than a
single person or organisation, so it is almost impenetrable. Additionally, the blanket of
anonymity provided by Tor makes it extremely challenging for anyone to expose individuals
who use the dark web; it would likely be impossible to find any of those in control.
Another concern is the consequences of shutting down the dark web. Even if the
government did succeed in completely shutting down the dark web, it wouldn’t actually
discourage the criminals from committing crimes. It would probably cause a lot of
inconvenience for them, but eventually, criminal activity would simply move to an even
more untraceable area, where it would likely be impossible for governments to track
activity. On the current dark web, agents can at least monitor and regulate. In 2015, the
New York Country District Attorney’s Office used an experimental internet search tool to
catch and prosecute to leader of a sex trafficking ring. A quote from Vox states: “The
government is unlikely to ever fully suppress the dark web for the same reason that law
enforcement has never been able to eliminate conventional black markets: there’s a lot of
demand for the information and products offered on these sites, and there’s always going
to be someone willing to take the risks involved in meeting that demand.”

While the dark web is a malicious and dangerous part of the internet that contains
a lot of dark activities, many people benefit from the dark web for legitimate reasons, and
completely shutting it down would be a loss to these individuals. But is that a valid
justification to remain inactive against immoral activity happening on the dark web? Most
would argue that many more people would benefit from the shutting down of the dark
web than those that would suffer – excluding criminals. However, shutting down the dark
web may do more harm than good when it comes to restricting activities happening there;
at least governments currently have the ability to monitor the majority of what happens
on Tor. Even if the government did try to shut down the dark web, it would probably be
impossible due to the complex servers and number of people willing to risk everything to
keep it running. Did the US government start a problem they couldn’t solve? Or is the dark
web worth its benefits?

Word count: 1423

Sources:
https://us.norton.com/blog/how-to/what-is-the-dark-web

https://us.norton.com/blog/privacy/is-the-dark-web-illegal

https://mentorcruise.com/blog/why-is-the-dark-web-not-shut-down-3f799/

https://www.vox.com/2014/12/31/7470965/dark-web-explained

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https://theweek.com/dark-web/102619/dark-web-what-is-it-how-can-you-access-it-is-it-
dangerous-what-can-you-find

https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/dark-web-crimes.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/26/brianna-ghey-case-should-prompt-
parents-to-monitor-internet-use-says-detective

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/teenager-obsessed-with-mass-
shootings-jailed-for-buying-gun-online

https://www.peraton.com/news/five-things-to-know-about-the-dark-web/

https://carleton.ca/align/2019/illuminate-exploring-the-dark-web-tor-for-activism/

https://www.fraud-magazine.com/cover-article.aspx?id=4295009061

https://www.avg.com/en/signal/what-is-tor-browser-and-is-it-
safe#:~:text=Tor%20sends%20data%20packets%20through,each%20time%20you%20open%20it.

https://s92fed181c4766f2b.jimcontent.com/download/version/1478159342/module/14662477625/na
me/Deep%20Web%20for%20Journalists%20by%20Alan%20Pearce.pdf#page6

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