Derek Nastasi
The Internet as we know it was born on March 12, 1989 and this week marks the 30th anniversary of the Internet’s birth. The Internet,or the World Wide Web (WWW), is of course an interesting digital place that people practically depend on and is a tool that I still can't wrap my head around. Being so complex, the Internet isn't all of what you think and there are sides that aren't regulated. In actually, the Internet or the surface web only makes up a small percentage of what is accessible by computers. You can fall into many deep and dark places on the Internet even on accident! The modernization and innovation of computers made the things like the world wide web possible.
Computers are the only way to access the Internet because the Internet is a virtual world. Computers were invented way before the web, but it is not clear when the first one came to be. You can search anywhere and on different websites, find different answers when the first computer was invented. There were calculation devices that were basically just beads on poles that helped people to remember where powers of numbers were; that was invented in Babylon 5000 years ago and was called the abacus. The earliest documented computing device was made in 1822 by the English mathematician and engineer, Charles Babbage. Now, this wasn't your modern computer, and it just followed punched cards when inserted then the machine would punch numbers into cards after following programs.
The first actual computer was the Colossus in 1943 made by Tommy Flowers to help British code breakers decipher encrypted German messages. Did you know an early computer was used to find measurements to split the atom and create nuclear fission to develop the atom bomb? After that, computers started getting more complex with the first portable and personal computer made in 1975, the first Apple computer made in 1976, and the first multimedia computer made in 1992 which is where mass use of the Internet starts and the story virtually begins.
Not much is known about the Internet before this time and there are mainly just theories and inferences that before the the web was invented, the military used something similar to it to record logistics and research before releasing it to the public. The web was made by an English scientist Tim-Berners Lee and he wrote the first web browser, a software for accessing information on the internet by using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), in 1990 while employed by CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The web was released to the general public in August of 1991.
However, the web has its dark side. While the surface web only covers 4% of the content accessible, the Deep and Dark Web covers 96% of the Internet! That's where you can steal people's information and buy illegal things and services such as drugs, weapons, classified files, hitmen jobs, organs, and anything that isn't legal anywhere else. As a matter of fact, kidneys are worth thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars and most parts of the body are able to be sold. That's where the saying “I'll have to sell my kidney for that” or “That cost me an arm and a leg!” comes from. Now there is a common stigma about the Lower Web with many saying it's only run by criminals but, a lot of times, people are on there because their country legally doesn't allow the Internet. For example, India just got public Internet in late 2018; that's what all of the T-Series and Pewdiepie rage was about. There are many Youtube videos of people browsing the Dark Web and,unfortunately, it's quite entertaining depending on your point of view. On this one episode the guy just found an innocent online chess game, but another time, he found assassination funds for big target politicians. The buying part is called the Black Market and is most commonly accessed by the Dark web.
Now there are two separate entities:
The Deep Web/Non indexed web:
The Deep Web, as you can probably guess, is more “innocent” than the latter. It's where information,medical records,some classified files, chat rooms, and borderline illegal websites or videos can be accessed. It makes up roughly 90% of the Internet and most of the things on it are actually innocent. It is completely legal to roam the deep web and it is even recognized by the government! If you have an online banking account or PayPal,you are accessing the Deep Web.The only catch is that making an uninvited purchase or transaction or anything in that matter is illegal and you can face some pretty hefty consequences. This is where people go to hide things or not have their speech limited at all.
The Dark Web/DarkNet/Wild West of the Web:
This is the part of the Internet that makes up roughly 6% of the Internet or maybe more, no one really knows everything about this realm. Some sources even say that it is a constant power struggle between criminals,hackers,or even the Illuminati. There are some who theorize that the web is divided into 13 levels and whoever gets to 13 controls the world! Unlike the Deep Web, the Dark Web is hard to get onto and the real only ways is if you work in cybersecurity, know someone with expertise, or have a lot of money. You can easily be tracked down by criminals if the right steps aren't taken.And aside from selling illegal cannons and the most potent mushrooms, people sell other people or even their hitman services. All of these transactions and payments are done with a currency called Bitcoin, which is untraceable. That's why many federal authorities are panicking because they can’t track down these criminals. The videos are the worst to see, sometimes there are X-rated films or even Red Rooms, live torture rooms where one can watch a person get tortured and suggest what the torturer does next. There are things on here that you know the people doing them have no good conscience or feelings for others.
The big thing to take from all of this is that the Internet isn't what we all know and,just like anything, it has its unexplored parts. By entering, it's at your own risk, maybe not on most of the early levels of the deep web, but most of it is dangerous. I would never condone actually going on the lower web because there are things on there that are scarring and could change you for good. That's what many people need to consider when making inventions or fully trusting certain things. It's important to look out for yourself and know that things can always be turned into the wrong hands.