The deep web is the vast ocean of online information hidden behind logins or barriers that prevent casual browsing. But the part that’s deliberately concealed, known as the dark web, is where myths thrive. Here are four that just won’t die.
1 It’s Illegal to Use the Dark Web
Every time you hear a news story about the dark web, it’s invariably about crimes like human trafficking. It makes you think that the dark web was created by criminal masterminds to evade the law.
In reality, the dark web has its roots in an official government project undertaken 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, “onion routing,” encrypted data while passing 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 started to spring up. These networks became known as the dark web.
In many countries, accessing the the dark web isn’t illegal. Tor is simply a tool, like a shovel—or it can be thought of as a more secure HTTPS. One legal use for the dark web comes from its original purpose: secure communications. Activists used the dark web to anonymously coordinate protests, an effort that eventually led to the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring.
Did you know that Facebook and ProPublica host official sites on the dark web? It lets free-thinkers living under governments with strict censorship access these sites’ geo-blocked content. Others might use the dark web to protect themselves from unwarranted surveillance or
tracking cookies
that steal their private data.
2 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 the Silk Road. The Silk Road was an infamous black market on the dark web for illicit drugs and illegal weapon sales. Yes, illegal goods were sold there, but the Silk Road has been gone since 2013.
Hearing about the Silk Road over and over makes the average person think the dark web is like the Las Vegas strip, where everywhere you turn someone is handing you a flyer for something questionable.
But in fact, it’s not that easy to stumble upon illegal goods or disturbing content on the dark web. If you approach vendors as a newbie, you’re likely to be defrauded. Or if they’re the real deal, they’ll want to vet you first to make sure you’re not an undercover cop. So, not that different from real life when you’re forced to get off the computer and go outside.
Perhaps this myth is why people assume there’s no value to the dark web for upstanding citizens of great moral character. But legitimate uses for the dark web do exist. Journalists use the dark web to share files securely 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.
3 It’s Difficult to Access the Dark Web
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.
All you need to do is to download a program. The top anonymity networks each use a different program for access:
- Tor: accessed via the Tor Browser.
- Invisible Internet Project (I2P): accessed via a full-featured I2P client.
- Hyphanet (formerly Freenet): accessed via a peer-to-peer Hyphanet client.
So you’ll need to install software for the hidden network you want to browse, but that’s all there is to it. After you’re connected, you’ll need to do active searching to find the best dark web websites you won’t find on Google.
So the next time someone calls you an elite-level hacker for knowing how to get onto the dark web, you can smile knowing that all you did was click a program on your PC.
4 Hackers Constantly Target Users on the Dark Web
Are there phishing scams and AI-driven FraudGPT bots on the dark web? Absolutely. You probably don’t want to send granny onto the dark web to get romance-scammed, and I definitely don’t recommend letting children visit either. And just so we’re 100% clear: like in the 2023 film Hit Man, murder-for-hire services are probably federal stings.
So does that mean hackers are constantly targeting your IP, like sharks circling in infested waters, as soon as 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 suspicious links or download suspect 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 den of iniquity, 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.
