Sweetie - Child Predator Investigatons

adam at February 03,2016
First of all, as an aside, I love Vice and their Motherboard articles are always fantastic. They always take an unflinching look at both sides of any issue. The way Tom summarizes the debate around Tor is perfect: "do we want the devil we know or the devil we don't." Despite the fact that Tor users have for the most part felt safe the most prominent sites have continuously been compromised. It seems that it only takes one or two people to expose the entire group. The technology is unquestionably morally benign but it definitely confirms some of Plato's ideas that anonymity can corrupt. With respect to law enforcement I believe ultimately it is helpful. I believe the things and transactions that occur on the deep that can be monitored by law enforcement. LE officials can see how criminals operate, what methodologies criminals are using, and use this information to better understand how to find evidence. Furthermore, despite the technology being impressive the weakest link in computer security is the person behind the keyboard. As long as there is a human element to Tor it will be continuously compromised. This being the case Tor does a good job of rounding up criminals of a certain kind in one place allowing LE officials to target certain types of criminals. Unfortunately, these aspects work in reverse when Tor is used to escape persecution form oppressive government.

tcmahony at February 05,2016
The journalist in this piece brings up a good question to the person running all the exit nodes in Tor regarding child porn. While he may not necessarily be blocking traffic to illicit sites there has to be a way or even people currently out there that block that type of illegal traffic at nodes that they operate. Privacy is a big concern but at the same time its almost as if the exit nodes are enabling illegal activities by not stopping them to begin with. And what legal repercussions are there for the exit node operator if they are caught transporting illicit content, anything at all or do they have to know what is occurring first.

nick at February 09,2016
The Internet, including the open web and dark web, is another instantiation of the global society. The Internet, much like the non-digital world, is a incalculable large, dynamic environment that involves billions of people interacting in billions of ways, continuously and ceaselessly. In such large scale societies there will always be good and evil as has been demonstrated throughout history. I am of the opinion that humanity is generally good or at least as good as to the extent people generally won't go out of their way to harm other people if those people aren't harming them. With this understanding, I also know that there are criminals, individuals and groups that act against the best interests of society. The Internet emulates general society. Anecdotally, we know that billions of legal and ethical transactions, both financial or an exchanges of ideas, occur daily on the Internet. There are also illegal and unethical transactions that transpire on the Internet. As the Darkweb is generally accessed anonymously, that very anonymous nature is conducive to supporting illegal or unethical activity, in an effort to avoid law enforcement or societies condemnation. This pattern is paralleled in the physical world as well. The cost for living in a free society that honors personal liberty in thought and action, requires society to endure that individuals will engage in questionable actions, such as the sale of guns and drugs through the dark web. I would suspect that the amount of this activity is at a similar ratio to legitimate activity as to that of which occurs in the physical world. Lastly, the fact that Tor can be used to support the freedom of expression in societies that are oppressed and protect an individual's privacy against the state, leads to a the conclusion that the dark web and Tor, good or evil are a necessity for a truly free society.

haneen at February 15,2016
I don't get it why police don't disguise and go to meet such persons and catch them. I know it's not that easy, but as long as this person had treated with them, then there must be a way to set up a meeting with the police. It is scary to know that there are some people who are not allowed to carry weapons legally are buying them illegally, It's actually so scary, and the buys don't assume that there is going to be a victim for the gun they sell. All they care about is money. I never imagined that creating a gun is that easy, it needs some skills , but who ever has them, then he can sell weapons to people who are not authorized to carry them.

fpazdzin at February 16,2016
I like the point that Moritz Bartl made about how these illegal activities will happen somewhere else even if he shuts his service down. You can’t fight the criminals of the Darknet by shutting down sites, and figuring out who is creating these sites takes way to long. It took investigators 2 years to discover and locate the creator of the Silk Road. You can imagine how many other sites were able to pop up during that time and how much criminal activity took place during those 2 years. It’s so easy to create a site for illegal activity and so difficult to shut them down. Also, I don’t understand why he thinks that the assassination sites are fake. There are some seriously illegal activity going on in the Darknet so why would it be so hard to believe that you could find services in there to have someone killed.