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.
