Seven Dark Web Questions Answered
Key Points
- The creator received many comments on a previous video about the dark web and identified seven frequently asked questions to address in this follow‑up.
- The web is likened to an iceberg: the surface web (≈5%) is searchable, the deep web (≈95%) is unindexed, and the dark web (<1%) sits at the bottom, accessible only with special tools.
- Contrary to popular belief, the dark web isn’t defined by illicit or NSFW content; its “darkness” refers to the lack of indexing and the need for specific knowledge to navigate it.
- While a portion of the dark web hosts illegal material, it also provides valuable services such as anonymity for journalists, activists, and others operating under repressive regimes.
- Understanding the dark web requires recognizing both its risks and its legitimate uses, dispelling the myth that it is solely a haven for hackers and illegal activity.
Sections
- Untitled Section
- Accidental Access to Dark Web - The speaker explains that stumbling onto the dark web is unlikely, as it requires intentional use of Tor and knowledge of hidden indexes or links to reach those sites.
- Limits of Outlawing the Dark Web - The speaker explains that researchers monitor hidden networks for security, ordinary users should stay away, and because laws are jurisdictional but technology is global, banning the dark web entirely is impractical despite its legitimate uses.
Full Transcript
# Seven Dark Web Questions Answered **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tbn9LUSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tbn9LUSE) **Duration:** 00:08:30 ## Summary - The creator received many comments on a previous video about the dark web and identified seven frequently asked questions to address in this follow‑up. - The web is likened to an iceberg: the surface web (≈5%) is searchable, the deep web (≈95%) is unindexed, and the dark web (<1%) sits at the bottom, accessible only with special tools. - Contrary to popular belief, the dark web isn’t defined by illicit or NSFW content; its “darkness” refers to the lack of indexing and the need for specific knowledge to navigate it. - While a portion of the dark web hosts illegal material, it also provides valuable services such as anonymity for journalists, activists, and others operating under repressive regimes. - Understanding the dark web requires recognizing both its risks and its legitimate uses, dispelling the myth that it is solely a haven for hackers and illegal activity. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tbn9LUSE&t=0s) **Untitled Section** - - [00:03:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tbn9LUSE&t=188s) **Accidental Access to Dark Web** - The speaker explains that stumbling onto the dark web is unlikely, as it requires intentional use of Tor and knowledge of hidden indexes or links to reach those sites. - [00:06:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tbn9LUSE&t=373s) **Limits of Outlawing the Dark Web** - The speaker explains that researchers monitor hidden networks for security, ordinary users should stay away, and because laws are jurisdictional but technology is global, banning the dark web entirely is impractical despite its legitimate uses. ## Full Transcript
I recently did a video on what is the dark web.
There was a lot of interest in that video.
In particular, lots of comments,
and yes, I do really read all of those comments,
and what I saw were some trends.
There were seven really frequently asked questions.
So what I'd like to do in this video is take a look at those seven and try to provide some answers
and better insight so that you better understand and illuminate the dark web.
So first, let's do a quick review of what is the dark web.
Well, if you think about the internet, the World Wide Web,
as essentially an iceberg, well, then there's a portion of the web
that is above the surface that's indexed. In other words, your favorite search engine can find that.
It's only about 5%,
and this is what we call the surface web,
because again, you can see it, it's above the surface.
The other 95%, though, is parts that are not indexed.
In other words, it's not in your favorite search engine.
you're not going to find those things unless you know how to get there to begin with,
and this whole section is called the deep web.
It's deep it's lower below the surface that kind of thing, you see the analogy,
in particular the stuff on the deep web is not necessarily nefarious stuff,
in fact a lot of it's just business documents and things like that.
It just may not be indexed and and linked by other websites
a lot of it is password protected material, a lot of it's stuff you don't really care about for the most part, but the dark web.
That's this tiny little tip down here at the bottom.
In fact, it's less than 1 % of the content by most estimates.
This is the part we call the dark web.
This is where the lights are out and you don't get there unless you intended to.
Okay, let's take a look at these seven frequently most asked questions.
Well, the number one was probably this one,
and that is, is the dark web really just a collection of explicit and illicit content?
In other words, is it really just all the not safe for work stuff that's out there?
Is that the only thing that's in there?
Well, the answer is no, although there certainly is a lot of that objectionable kind of content that's gonna be in the dark web,
but guess what?
It's in the surface web as well.
So the reason we call it the dark web is not because of the nature of the content,
it's because it's dark as in like a dark room.
You need a flashlight to get around.
You need to know where the room is.
You need to know where the doors are.
All of that kind of stuff and that kind of prior knowledge is necessary in order to get around and navigate in the dark web.
So the second question, is there anything really good there?
Or again, is it all just a bunch of hackers and stuff like that that are hanging around?
Well, the answer is yes.
In fact, there is some good stuff there.
Imagine, for instance, a journalist who wants to be able to write in a country where
maybe free journalism is not encouraged or is not even legal.
So they could benefit from anonymity.
Same thing with a whistleblower,
someone who is making a report maybe about a company that has abuses
and they need anonymity in order to make that information public.
Political dissidents are another example.
And so there can be some good uses for the dark web.
It's not all bad.
And then the third question is, can I get there by accident?
is this something i could just stumble onto and suddenly end up in this crazy dark web place?
Well the answer is it's highly unlikely.
In fact if you remember from the previous video that i talked about on this,
you'd need some technology in most cases something called the onion router, or tor,
in order to navigate through to there in the first place if you're worried am i just going to stumble into this,
I wouldn't worry about that.
It's far more likely that you're gonna have to pick and choose to go there intentionally.
Okay, FAQ number four.
So how do I get there?
Where is this thing, this dark web?
Well, it's kind of one of those things, if you know, you know.
Now, to give you a more detailed answer, even though I said it's not indexed, there are static indexes that are maintained.
So you kind of have to know where those are and then you could off of a list like a wiki or something like that,
it would have links to the addresses of where some of these dark web sites are,
but again, it's one of those, you kind of have to know in order to know, in order to get there,
and that's also again, why you're very unlikely to end up getting there by accident.
You would have had to have gone there with intention,
but there are some lists that are out there.
Next thing then is the question a lot of people wondered about, should I go there?
Is there any good reason for me to go?
Well, I'm gonna say just in general, if you have to ask, then the answer is probably no.
Because again, it's a rough neighborhood.
There's a lot of stuff out there.
There is a lot of illicit material.
In some cases, it's illegal for you to even go, depending on where you are in the world.
There are also a lot of people that deal in malware and things like that.
So some of these sites could be, maybe even with a higher degree, would be infected.
So you could end up with an infected system with malware.
So probably not.
It's a rough neighborhood.
You don't need to go there unless you're someone that really needs to go there.
Now, that said, there are some people that have legitimate reasons.
Remember, I mentioned the whistleblowers, the political dissidents, the journalists, those kinds of folks.
They have legitimate reasons to go there because they need anonymity to do what they're doing.
And we're served by them being able to have anonymity.
Another group of people that can go there for a legitimate reason are security researchers.
If the bad guys are exchanging information on how they're doing their attacks,
if they're releasing records, database dumps of personal information.
Then you'd like for the good guys to discover that and be
able to warn you about it, to be able to see what the attacker trends are.
So security researchers, like IBM's X-Force security research team, go there on a regular basis and monitor and understand,
but for the general citizenry out there, nah, stay away.
So then the next question that a lot of people asked was, okay,
if I shouldn't be going there, then why did you even talk about this thing in the first place.
I'm going to say, you know what, I think most of you are never going to go to
Saturn, but it's kind of interesting to know about it,
and that's the curiosity that I have and some of the others do as well.
I want to know about something so that I can understand it.
It doesn't mean I have to actually go there.
So there are things that we can learn and hopefully you now have a better understanding of that.
And then the last question that was among these most common
ones that I read was, Why don't we just outlaw the dark web?
Why does this thing even exist?
Can we just make a law to make the whole thing go away?
Well, first of all, I don't think we'd want to because again, there are some legitimate reasons why we'd want to keep this,
but even if you could pass a law, here's the problem.
Laws are by definition, jurisdictional, they're local.
However, technology is global.
So passing a law in one place doesn't make that a law for everyone.
And even if you could pass a law for everyone, there's always gonna be some
place that somebody could host this material and it's not going to be affected.
It's gonna be out of the reach of the law people that are trying to enforce.
So it's not a practical solution and that's why it exists,
and again, it's a mixture of good and bad, and it all depends on who's there and how they're using that information.
Okay, so there are the seven most frequently asked questions on the dark web video.
and hopefully that has illuminated your understanding of this thing we call the World Wide Web.
I suspect most of you are gonna wanna stay up here on the surface, and that's fine.
There's plenty of material there to keep you very busy.
But if you do decide to go to these other areas, just bear in mind,
you're now moving maybe from the world wide web to the Wild wild west.
I'll let you decide.