Hosted by YouTube on youtu.be/h2kZAB_c-hA. A dead end? Not necessarily.įootage from the exhibition at the NeMe Arts Centre. Daily web use is threatened by a lock-in web culture, uninhibited data mining, a stagnating debate on individual privacy, and an inaccessible and seemingly spammy Underworld Web. Furthermore, the centralization of the internet’s infrastructure into a few data centers is going hand-in-hand with the content concentration of the Surface Web by five Tech Giants and the encroaching “appification” of the Web.
The privacy discourse has failed to spark the collective imagination – no matter how large and justified the outrage at leaking data and surveillance. It is difficult to fathom the implications of people’s bodies, purchases, chatter, random activities and affiliations constantly being collected, analysed, exploited and stored in a data-grid that is inaccessible and incomprehensible for most people. It is one of the remaining bastions of individual privacy against corporate and governmental snooping and data mining, a place where anyone can cloak themselves in anonymity or pseudonymity.įive years after the Snowden revelations, we can safely conclude that the focus on surveillance and individual privacy has not lead to a thriving debate on the infrastructure, imagination and accessibility to information on the web. Indeed, it is an important communication tool for human rights NGOs, political dissidents, activists, and every other user who – for any reason whatsoever- wishes not to be tracked, stalked, and spied on. This realm empowered many citizens during the Arab Spring, providing encrypted communication channels to coordinate protest. Apart from crypto-currencies, porn and narcotics, this concealed territory contains a wide range of encrypted communication, academic and subscription-based journals, classified information, hidden wikis and onions, and much more that remains inaccessible when browsing and surfing the surface. What defines this vast hidden depository is simply that it resides in encrypted databases and channels that cannot be indexed or accessed through search engines. In fact, the Deep Web contains an estimated 96% of all the content to be found circulating online. The Deep Web is much more than an online black market teeming with illegal activity. Furthermore, the popular Deep Web documentary (2015) helped shape a dramatic image of these impenetrable parts of the Internet as a lawless cove, mainly populated by bandits, predators, and pirates. Data leaks, such as the Panama Papers, further politicised this so-called “invisible” web.
News reporting mostly publishes sensational stories on cyber-criminals operating in a virtual legal vacuum on the Darknet, arms and human trafficking, murder-for-hire and extreme gore on contraband websites such as Silk Road. This image is understandable if you consider the bad press encrypted channels have received over the years. The Deep Web evokes images of an underworld, the locus of shadow economies where illicit trade takes place that cannot bear the light of day.