The deep web is the vast ocean of information online, hidden behind logins or barriers that prevent casual browsing. But the part that is intentionally hidden, known as the dark web, is where myths thrive. Here are four such myths that won\’t go away.
Using the dark web is illegal
Whenever you hear a news story about the dark web, it\’s always about crimes like human trafficking. This makes you think that the dark web was created by criminal masterminds to evade the law.
In fact, the dark web has its roots in an official government project started by the U.S. Naval Research Lab in the 1990s. Its scientists wanted to find a new way to increase security in internet communications. The method they came up with was \”onion routing,\” which encrypts data and passes it through multiple servers.
Onion routing was released to the public in 2002 as an open-source software called Tor. Once users could access private networks anonymously, hidden websites began to emerge. These networks are known as the dark web.
In many countries, accessing the dark web is not illegal. Tor is simply a tool, like Shovel — or it can be thought of as the more secure HTTPS. One legal use of the dark web comes from its original purpose: secure communications. Activists used the dark web to coordinate protests anonymously, an effort that eventually led to the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring.
Black market goods are easy to find on the dark web
I\’m pretty sure it\’s impossible for mainstream news to cover the dark web without mentioning Silk Road. Silk Road was a notorious black market on the dark web for the sale of illegal drugs and illegal weapons. Yes, illegal goods were sold there, but Silk Road has been shut down since 2013.
Hearing about Silk Road over and over again makes the common man think that the dark web is like the Las Vegas strip, where wherever you turn someone is handing you a flyer of something suspicious.
But in reality, stumbling upon illegal goods or disturbing content on the dark web is not that easy. If you approach sellers as a novice, you are likely to be scammed. Or if they are real, they would want to check you first to make sure you are not an undercover police officer. So, it is not much different from real life when you are forced to get up from the computer and leave.
It is probably this myth that makes people believe that the dark web is of no value to honest citizens with great moral character. But legitimate uses for the dark web do exist. Journalists use the dark web to safely share files with their confidential whistle-blowers. One of these efforts led to the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016, an exposé of financial corruption on a global scale.
Accessing the Dark Web is Difficult
The truth is that it\’s not difficult for the average person to access the dark web: you don\’t need technical expertise or expensive hardware.
So you\’ll need to install software for the hidden network you want to browse, but that\’s it. Once connected, you\’ll need to do active searching to find the best dark web websites that you won\’t find on Google.
So the next time someone calls you an elite-level hacker to learn how to get on the dark web, you can smile knowing that you just clicked a program on your PC.
Hackers Constantly Target Users on the Dark Web
Are there phishing scams and AI-powered FraudGPT bots on the dark web? Absolutely. You probably wouldn\’t want to send grandma to the dark web for romance-scamming, and I definitely don\’t recommend letting kids go either. And just so we\’re 100% clear: Like the 2023 movie Hit Man, murder-for-hire services are probably federal stings.
So does this mean hackers are constantly targeting your IP, like sharks circling in infected waters, every time you dive in?
No, because the whole purpose of using the dark web is to make it more difficult to monitor you. If you use a VPN on the dark web and don\’t click on suspicious links or download suspicious files, you\’ll generally avoid dangerous content on the dark web.
In many ways, the dark web represents the pure idea of a decentralized network with free exchange. The dark web can be a hotbed of lawlessness, but it can also be a place where you learn obscure information and find niche communities. When the internet was brand new and not yet corporatized, that feeling was pretty exciting.