By Mehak Bahri
Imagine this; take an onion in your hand. It’s a simple round pink ball that seems to have many layers. Start peeling off those layers one by one and you are headed towards the core, and by the end of peeling, you’ll undoubtedly be in tears. This is the best metaphor that is used to describe what the DARK NET is about.
What is the dark net?
I stumbled upon this fascinating, but shady concept a while back and when I heard the stories, I was astonished and refused to believe any of the content that is said to be prevalent on the dark net. The dark net is the bit of the web that is deliberately hidden from search engines, but exists within the core of the internet server. These searches will not come up in Google, Askme, etc. But for access to these searches, is the dark net.
The websites that result in the searches of the dark net are anonymous. It is virtually impossible to tell who the owner of the website is. The dark net is used by illegal sellers, political groups who don’t want their conversations to be ultra-secretive or even journalists who want to expose the truth without exposing themselves.
True to its name, the dark net has a very dark side to itself. It is a market for everything gross and everything gruesome that is beyond your wildest thoughts. Child porn and contract killers are the highlights of the dark net, totally inaccessible if you don’t know the dark net and impossible to trace.
The dark net first emerged in 2004 when the US wanted to transmit secret messages to its military. Soon enough, a portion of it became available to the public and thus, the darkest of the dark net was born. Now there are approximately more than 200,000 sites on the dark net.
If you still haven’t figured out how effed up the dark net is, here are some examples of the trade going on in the cores of the dark net.
1. The Cannibalism
People put up searches for ‘juicy and tender human meat’ that they’d like to consume. And in reply, they receive a candidate’s wellness profile and the willingness to be sacrificed. There is a website especially dedicated on ‘cooking women.’ It’s sickening and repulsive.
2. The Stats
It shows the births and deaths taking place in the world all in real time. Also, a website shows the number of people jumping off the Tampa Bay to commit suicide.
3. The Infamous Silk Road
Nothing like the actual Silk Road that was used to trade products between India and China, the virtual Silk Road trades drugs. Any kinds of drugs, from any part of the world and in whatever quantity, the Silk Road has it all. It also included a comic book, perfectly sealed but with pages that were strips of LSD.
4. Mental Asylums
If you ever go to the Website of London School of Economics (LSE) the university and dorm rooms can be interactively viewed by going left, right, straight, etc. The dark net provides the same with a mental asylum and you can go from room to room, ward from ward to watch mentally sick people.
5. Psycho videos for Psycho People?
This included a video of a girl who is sitting in a dirty room, wearing a mask and eating sandwiches. Except she isn’t actually eating them because she’s wearing a mask, hence everything falls on the floor (Probably why the room is so dirty). The creepiest part about the video is the recordings played in the background. It makes absolutely no sense, but is definitely creepy.
https://youtu.be/IYyS11Niy0k
6. Last Words
The dark net includes last recordings of planes that crashed. The audio files of the pilots can be listened in on to. It also includes the final words of Texan inmates about to be executed. And again, the question is; what’s the point of this?
The dark net is like the Wild West. People visit to satisfy their curiosity and prove their braveness. The only difference is that once you enter the dark net, you may or may not come out sane.
It’s a dangerous place and like mothers say, don’t go out to play in the dark; don’t go snooping around the dark net.
