Reconsidering Darkweb as a Legitimate Medium

Monday. July 24, 2023 - 3 mins

Recently, I decided to surf the clearnet and try to actively look for content which should not be accessible to the public. Usually, one argument made against Tor, is that this tool is specifically used by criminals to divulge questionable items which in some regions may even be considered illegal. Although, due to traditional customs of each regions, law and interpretations of it differs. What remains consistent among different nations, is that we must aim to protect certain groups of entities which are vulnerable and might even lack any understanding of their rights.

Certainly, it might be true that there have been criminals at some point that have used Tor to conduct their illicit activities. It may even be true, that today some are continuing to use Tor for this exact purpose. Unfortunately due to lack extensive research in this area, we do not know precisely percentage of illicit materials on dark web. But, at the same time it could be argued that clearnet, may be used for the same type of activities. It is commonly known that criminals are publicly trading credentials of users on Discord channels and telegram groups [0]. The same questionable items are being traded on clearnet forums, but there is a common myth surrounding the dark web which keeps growing. For instance, it has been written that “Much of what occurs on the Dark Web is illegal” [1], but when we look at the situation objectively, we observe something entirely different.

In a study by Jardine et al. (2020), after measuring activities, it was reported that only 6.7% of daily Tor users are using it for malicious purposes, and most of them are users from “free countries”. Banning Tor and attack the network is not a solution since many honest users rely on it to protect their communications and themselves. There are various legitimate use cases for Tor. More about this can be read on their FAQ page [2].

A major counter-argument against Tor and dark web, is child exploitation and abuse. Children, in many cases may not be even aware that they have rights in certain contexts. In many countries, access to the Internet is limited and due to traditional customs, it may be accepted in some regions which are not yet modernized to mistreat children due to lack of education. By allowing them to use Tor, we could educate them so they learn their rights and we might even be able to offer them help in some scenarios by publicizing malicious events.

Moreover, it has been reported by UNICEF that a quarter of children worldwide lack birth registration and official documents [3]. Lack of a document gives them a a cloak of invisibility, which may pose multiple risks [4]. Since there is no level of protection, anyone would be able to take them from their family and trade them as soldiers, slaves, etc. Militia groups in the past have used children as soldiers in conflicts and may continue to do so [5]. Maybe instead of promoting attacks on Tor and encryption (unfairly), more resources should be dedicated in this area. It is the responsibility of governments to find a solution to this problem. They could start by educating families on why birth registration matters and the risks associated with lack of it. If a family is unable financially to obtain documents, aids should be given.

Writers and content producers should also pay more attention to what they publish, and more fact checking should be done to avoid any unnecessary damage to Tor’s reputation. Any unfair attack on Tor is seen as a positive action by abusive and malicious individuals. Instead of tunnelling resources in the wrong direction, we should objectively look at the data and then take an action, otherwise it would simply be a waste.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StSLxFbVz0M
[1] https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/dark-web-crimes.html
[2] https://support.torproject.org/abuse/#abuse_what-about-criminals
[3] https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/despite-significant-increase-birth-registration-quarter-worlds-children-remain
[4] https://www.unicef.org/stories/what-birth-registration-and-why-does-it-matter
[5] https://www.unicef.org/protection/children-recruited-by-armed-forces