Tor: A Reason for Enthusiastic Discussion
October 21, 2018
The Tor Web browser was designed by the Naval Research Institute to protect journalists, human rights activists, and freedom fighters avoid detection in authoritarian governments. However, bad actors also use the browser to power the Dark Web to sell drugs, child pornography, weapons, illegal goods, participate in human trafficking, offer assassination services, and more. Homeland Security investigates in the story, “Is Tor Doing More Harm Than Good? Experts Weigh Costs Of Dark Web.”
In May 2018, Virginia Tech held a Dark Web forum that discussed Tor’s impact and whether it was a force for good or bad. The Tor browser is very much like the Internet. When the Internet was first launched it was lauded as a force for good, increasing access to information, communication between people, and more. With the good came the bad, including a new level of crime soon dubbed cyber crimes ranging from child pornography to selling illegal goods. Sound familiar? The Tor Project is supposed to be a force for good and the US State Depart, National Science Foundation, and individuals fund it. Is it worth continuing
“ ‘It’s becoming a place where certain classes of criminals can act with impunity,’ said Gareth Owenson, a senior lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of Portsmouth. ‘At the moment, the U.S. government funds Tor because it believes it is a force for good, that it is promoting human rights in other countries. My view, having studied it for almost five years now, is that overwhelmingly the harm outweighs the good.’”
Eighty percent of the Dark Web sites are dedicated to child pornography in 2014, but it has been reduced to forty percent as of 2018. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies also power the Dark Web. Anonymity is the big draw to the Tor browser and crypto currencies.
Is Tor able to deliver anonymous Web browsing? Sure it is.
Whitney Grace, October 21, 2018
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
