The Deep Web

Over Thanksgiving break as I was sitting in the auto-repair shop, (curse you Jeeps for being so cute yet so prone to issues) I decided to forego my anger of being forced to endure the remaining 3 hours in the shop and read look over the magazines on the table. I decided to go against "O: The Opera Magazine" and the always riveting "People," and instead "Time" caught my eye. I'd been a weekly reader from ages 14-18-- when the subscription wasn't on my dime, but since coming to college 2 years earlier, I hadn't had a chance to read many issues. The cover is what first appealed to me. The cover read "The Secret Web" and the byline said "Where Drugs, Porn, and Murder Hide Online." Due to my unhealthy addiction with Investigation Discovery, this skeezy headline begged me to read on.

As I continued to read, I was captivated. The story unraveled like a $3 mystery novel on sale at Barnes & Noble, and yet it was all true. Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind the whole operation looked no different than many of the male students I pass by on campus daily. And yet, he had headed a multi-million dollar operation, The Silk Road. My naivety surprised me. How could there have been an underground website that sold drugs and prostitutes (among other taboos), and the government had such a difficult time finding out who was behind it? How did I never know about this?

Reading this article this past year, and re-reading it really opened my eyes. It's interesting that there really are many dark things going on "underground" on the internet, some things even headed by the "good-guys," that I have no idea about. It's really important to stay current and be progressive about the things going on around you, even if that's just reading the online news every day. Not being informed on issues that will affect you, when you have the resources readily available isn't being naive, it's  being ignorant.