Banning the Dark Web...A Noble Idea

            With all the news and buzz in regards to net neutrality that has been going on in the past week or so, I came across a pretty interesting article that discusses the Deep Web. For those of you that have never heard of this or just don’t know what it is, the Deep Web is the portion of the World Wide Web content that is not indexed by the standard search engines. Then there are multiple subsections of the Deep Web like Darknet for example. Darknet is basically a private network where connections are made only between trusted peers, sometimes referred to as “friends,” using non-standard protocols and ports. One of the most famous networks within the Darknet is Tor, which is a free software for enabling anonymous communications. What’s wrong with that you may ask; when you are able to direct Internet traffic through a “free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than six thousand relays to conceal a user's location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis,” concerns can be raised. These are concerns from prosecutors and government agencies that see this as a haven for serious criminality. 

            One of these government agencies that has taken notice and are attempting to do something about it is the United Kingdom.  Although the Parliamentary advisers understand that networks such as Tor could be used in the public interest, they are more concerned with the criminal ends. With the recent up rise in successful and stopped terrorism attacks that have been happening all around the world, a lot of concern has been raised too. David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK, wants to be able to take charge of this concern and prevent any other attacks that could happen. He states, “There should be no means of communication the security services could not read.” He then goes on to say, “The question remains, ‘Are we going to allow a means of communications where it simply is not possibly to do that?’ My answer to that question is, ‘No, we must not.’”

            Unfortunately for the UK, Prime Minister Cameron does not have too much knowledge about the subject of the internet or Dark Web. One expert stated that the plan is “noble” but highly and ultimately unworkable. One of the reasons this plan is unworkable is due to the “widespread agreement that banning online anonymity systems altogether is not seen as an acceptable policy option in the UK.” As far as the technical difficulties, it would be almost impossible.

            A report recently published cited the example of the Chinese government, which attempted to block access to Tor in order to enforce bans on unauthorized websites. Basically what happened was that the body that maintains the network simply added “bridges” that were “very difficult to block”, which ultimately allowed people to continue accessing Tor. The report then went on to say, “computer experts argue that any legislative attempt to preclude Tor Hidden Services from being available in the UK would be technologically infeasible.”

            Although Prime Minister Cameron has only the best intentions in mind, it looks like he should brush up on his knowledge of the internet because it is not going to go his way.