Despite Its Nefarious Reputation, New Report Finds Majority of Activity On Dark Web is Totally Legal and Mundane (digitaljournal.com)

According to a study published by dark web data intelligence provider Terbium Labs, the bulk of activity appearing on the dark web is much like the content and commerce found on the clear web. In fact, researchers found that nearly 55 percent of dark web content is legal. From a report:"What we've found is that the dark web isn't quite as dark as you may have thought," said Emily Wilson, Director of Analysis at Terbium Labs. "The vast majority of dark web research to date has focused on illegal activity while overlooking the existence of legal content. We wanted to take a complete view of the dark web to determine its true nature and to offer readers of this report a holistic view of dark web activity -- both good and bad." Key findings from the report are (condensed): Anonymity does not mean criminality. Pornography is prominent, but not all of it is illegal. Drugs are a popular topic, with 45 percent of illegal content being about drugs.

Comments

not quite accurate

[slashmydots]

This depends on what country's laws you use to compare it. A long time ago I saw a screenshot of an alleged dark web index type thing and a lot of the site descriptions were like survival instructions in case of a government martial law type situation and bomb-making instructions. Neither of those are technically illegal in the US I think but they would be in a ton of other countries. A lot of stuff appeared to be very borderline but then again it wasn't an extensive list.

Nefarious reputation eh?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I suspect most of the "dark web"'s reputation (including it's nefarious-sounding name) is mostly made up by the media, themselves controlled by the states, to prevent honest people who would legitimately like to escape state and big data surveillance. Most honest people fear being caught doing something that has a dodgy reputation, even if it's perfectly legal.

Maintaining the myth that the "dark web" is strictly for pedophiles, drug dealers, paid hitmen, carders and other illegal activities keeps good people from going under the radar, That suits a whole bunch of genuinely nefarious internet actors just fine. It also suits law enforcement agencies, as the myth tends to isolate and concentrate truly nasty activities on the dark web - making the myth self-perpetuating - and it kills any desire for legit concerns to invest in anonymous internet accessibility. Just look at what happened to DuckDuckGo's or Soylentnews' TOR nodes: they've disappeared, because they didn't get enough traffic.

Re:Dark Web?

[Akili]

In general, the 'dark web' is parts of the Internet that can only be accessed if you configure your system in a particular way. Whether that's running a TOR browser, or joining as a Freenet node, or something like that. The content is (generally) still HTML-based code, so standard web browser engines are used. But just having the address to the site, or even the server's IP, won't provide the information. As a result, they also aren't indexed, and can be difficult to navigate.

There's another coined phrase of 'deep web', which are non-indexed websites that you may still be able to access if you are told of their addresses. These can still be reached with a standard browser and configuration. I might make it analogous to Youtube videos that are posted by their owners but marked 'Unlisted'.

Who would risk the internet?

[AHuxley]

The problem is that any US state task force with federal funding or federal case now has the budget per case to track users ip's.
Been on the dark web is as now as safe as using your own ip and isp.
Anything left is a honey pot, bait, a trap or has been turned long ago and is now a gov run front to collect with.
Every file is has a checksum. Every checksum is tracked on download and upload. New files get a checksum. Facial recognition and any camera details left in a file are extracted and sorted. Every file linked back to a real ip.
The interesting groups are now invite only and in back the real world. Its back to 1900-1980's with clusters of crime interlinked by trusted real people.
Spending time exposed to some vast digital trap is a risk that is well understood.
Think of what the internet once was, chatrooms without SJW and approved social media. Users are looking to rediscover the freedom and fun of the net around the 1980's - 1990's.