October 30, 2015

from YouTube Website

 

 

 

When you browse the internet and use search engines to find content, you're engaging in the "surface web."

 

Whenever you put in a password to log in to a protected website or webpage (your email client, online banking, protected corporate or government sites), you are accessing the "dark web."

 

If you are going totally off the grid to find sites that are completely anonymous except through the use of special software, then you are on the "deep web."

The most famous example of the deep web is The Silk Road, an online marketplace for drugs and other illegal items that launched in 2011.

 

Its name became part of the national conversation after a raid by the FBI appeared to have uncovered its leader - an administrator going by the name "Dread Pirate Roberts" (from The Princess Bride) - 29-year-old named Ross Ulbricht.

That wasn't the end of The Silk Road, nor of Ulbricht's odyssey through the legal system. The video takes a linear approach in explaining the deep web, Tor, onion sites, Bitcoin, and how they all relate to The Silk Road and Ulbricht's bid for freedom.

The video orients viewers through graphics and narration to a world many viewers may not be familiar with, but its not so broadly accessible that there aren't things that even those who have diligently followed The Silk Road case can't learn from its presentation and arguments.

 

One of the most interesting things the video broaches is how search the seizure laws affect the internet, and whether or not Ulbricht's case (which is currently in sentencing stages) might have all fallen down if the FBI had been forced to admit how they were able to access the Silk Road server in the first place (in the video it's suggests the most likely scenario is that a foreign server was hacked without a warrant).

The video balances the arguments for and against the politics and ethics of these complicated issues for awhile, interviewing figures from both sides of the aisle (many of whom acknowledge there's no absolute line that can be drawn).

 

Still, there's definitely a bias that begins to develop as the video continues.

 

Also are interviewed Ulbricht's greatly supportive parents, as well as his friends and others who want to help paint a truer portrait of the man being accused of masterminding the entire site.

 

 

 

The Dark Net isn't what you think. It's actually key to our privacy

Alex Winter - TEDxMidAtlantic