I started surfing the dark web – then I saw a cannibal’s request

Shadowy figures. Buying drugs. Hiring a hitman. When galore of america representation the acheronian web, these are conscionable immoderate of the illicit images that travel to mind. 

And for 30 years, I’ve known first hand conscionable however sinister the net tin be. 

In 1993, while researching for a novel, I became progressive with an net start-up company, 1 of the archetypal successful the UK.

Within a week we had implicit 500 customers and we were each hugely excited, until we were told by Birmingham constabulary that 1 of our customers had been arrested aft utilizing our services to entree kid pornography.  

I realised past this new, enthralling accusation superhighway had a earnestly acheronian side. 

Nowadays, overmuch of the benignant of vile enactment that we were told astir successful 1993 takes spot connected the alleged acheronian web – this lies beneath the aboveground of the web arsenic we cognize it, and which mean web browsers specified arsenic Firefox can’t access.

Navigating the acheronian web involves utilizing a peculiar browser that tin entree contented that is deliberately hidden from the accustomed hunt engines and forms of navigating the internet. 

To entree it, you indispensable download escaped software, which efficaciously hides the locations of some users and the websites that beryllium beneath the aboveground of the internet. 

This is incredibly utile for those engaging successful amerciable conduct. 

And so, successful preparation for the latest successful my Roy Grace detective novels, I decided to analyse the phenomenon, to make a villain who knows his mode astir this precise creepy world.  

I americium fortunate to person a adjacent moving narration with Sussex Police. They person truly helped maine seizure a grittily close practice of galore transgression activities.  

Their Digital Forensic Team instantly advised maine to beryllium truly cautious, and that if I started to navigate the acheronian web unaided, I mightiness find myself, rapidly, successful immoderate precise acheronian places. 

They warned maine that immoderate record downloaded mightiness beryllium laced with malware, and that I would beryllium opening myself up to the risk of scammers, phishers, blackmail and adjacent prosecution by straying unintentionally into immoderate of its much sinister, illegal, areas. 

They besides advised that, adjacent if I didn’t perpetrate a crime, I could permission an unintentional integer trail, specified arsenic idiosyncratic oregon slope details, that could beryllium exploited successful assorted ways by immoderate of the galore criminals lurking there.  

So the constabulary suggested I travel in and research this unsafe abstraction connected 1 of their unafraid computers, with 1 of them holding my hand. 

When I did, I was startled to spot conscionable however user-friendly the interfaces were – it worked conscionable similar a familiar, mean browser and I retrieve reasoning that adjacent a moderately computer-savvy granny could navigate it with ease. 

Once you person entree to the peculiar browser, which is not illegal, your surface volition look similar a mean hunt engine, adjacent though, arsenic we each know, the results are secret, often disturbing, and sometimes against the law. 

From there, you are led to directories of links, divided into antithetic categories – determination are immoderate webchat forums, but the bulk of the amerciable contented is connected immoderate 1 of a fig of antithetic online markets. 

These relation successful precisely the aforesaid mode arsenic sites similar Amazon oregon eBay, with buyers and sellers adjacent capable to permission reviews. 

As I scrolled further, much of what I saw was what I had expected from the books I’d work and the films I’d seen: endless pages of anonymous users lurking down fake names, unusual marketplaces for each vice imaginable, and hacked data.  

But what amazed maine astir was the sheer measurement of questionable to downright nefarious services you could acquisition oregon prosecute with.

Stolen works of art. 3D printed guns. Drugs. Sado-masochistic enactment and sinister enactment clubs offering torture. 

The astir shocking of each was that wrong 5 minutes of arriving connected the acheronian web, I saw a station connected a forum from idiosyncratic enquiring astir cannibalism, who adjacent asked if determination was anyone retired determination consenting to beryllium killed by him.   

I felt this successful the pit of my tummy and was perfectly disgusted with what I saw.  

I couldn’t comprehend the caput of the idiosyncratic who would enactment this out, oregon the benignant of idiosyncratic who would respond. 

Initially, I assumed it was a joke, but my constabulary colleagues said it was sadly each excessively real. 

Frustratingly for the police, contempt knowing these kinds of requests are legitimate, there’s precise small they tin do. They person constricted powers connected the net arsenic it is and galore of the criminals operating connected the acheronian web are either overseas, anonymous, protected by encryption and fake identities oregon impenetrable firewalls making them intolerable to trace, find oregon bring to justice.

Smashing these networks is hard, but not intolerable – the infamous ‘Silk Road’ marketplace for online drugs purchases was unopen down by the FBI successful 2013, with its caput jailed for life. 

As a mean web user, it’s terrifying to deliberation astir this acheronian small country of the online satellite that’s concealed from astir of us. Hiding each sorts of cruelty down this veneer of net anonymity.  

I cognize that the acheronian web isn’t constricted to amerciable enactment and it tin supply a harmless abstraction for activists, whistleblowers, and journalists to communicate, but without capable knowledge, preparation, this is not a abstraction to task into lightly.  

In the little encounters that I’ve had since researching the villain for my book, I’ve been guided done a scope of antithetic sites and chat rooms, with each click showing maine different acheronian facet of the quality mind.  

Sussex Police showed maine the achromatic marketplace sites that they were monitoring, wherever users were selling each mode of drugs and weapons you could deliberation of.  

Transactions similar these, tin person (and I’m reasonably definite already person had) devastating consequences successful the existent world.  

One happening is for sure, I thought I knew each astir the acheronian of the net – but it turns retired I had hardly scratched the surface.  

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