The Internet beyond our Limits – Rajmeet Singh Chandok

Imagine a Cornetto ice cream cone. (I promise this isn’t a paid Cornetto promo.)

Think of the luscious top layer of your cone with all the soft cream and crunchy nuts and delicious mouth-watering chocolate.

This, reader, is the regular part of the Internet you use, commonly termed as the surface web. The Internet is not the place we think it to be. In reality, it is way bigger than our imagination.

We are able to access merely 4% of the total Internet, which consists of like 8 billion pages, but the rest of the whopping 96% of the Internet is beyond us.

Back to your imaginary ice cream now: Gradually, move your attention towards the cone.

Now, we get deeper. In the cone, we have a new type of liquidy-jelly like chocolate.

That’s the opening of the Deep Web, also called the ‘Dark Web.’ But we’re still only just entering into troubling waters.

After that liquid chocolate, at the end of the cone, you get the amazing residue of almost solid chocolate. This is the real Deep Dark Web. This 96% of the internet can only be accessed by a special browser: the TOR Browser. (If you use it and get into trouble, I take no responsibility at all.)

Now, you may begin devouring the virtual ice cream you’ve been staring at for so long. (Had you started eating already? Very cheeky.) Meanwhile, let me tell you how this division of the Internet plays out in the real world.

The part you’re licking away at right now is the regular surface web we use. Here, you can find all the day-to-day websites like Facebook, Youtube, Google, and Wikipedia. It is pretty awesome and does offer a great deal of freedom to users: almost universally free access to information, freedom to express themselves, to debate and share views, and find a community of like-minded individuals.

Eating further into the narrow part of the cone, you enter the other side of the net. Here, you can find services like hidden Wikipedia pages, Government Resources, Medical Records and Legal Documents.

Finally, at the end of the cone, the dark chocolate i.e. the DARK WEB lures you in. Trust me, it really is pretty dark, darker than the colour of the chocolate you’re enjoying. Here, all the illegal stuff takes place. Unlike the freedom our version of the internet offers, this place holds the alluring but questionable promise of absolute freedom. No control. It is here where all the criminal activities, illegal deeds and the activities in which one should not get into take place, including cannibalism, mafia, drugs and pornography. The presence of these activities is possible in the dark web because it is so well hidden that people can’t complain. There are also rooms in the net where, when you enter, you may find yourself in a place where you can do anything to anyone for some money. The dark web isn’t a fun place but here is where lie the secrets of mankind.

I recommend that you don’t try visiting this seemingly hidden haven. Try to ignore it and move on with your life because getting into this can get you in big trouble. However, if you do visit it, you will be full of regret, as your ice cream has now finished. Sorry!

The next time you crave absolute freedom, reader, remember the Deep Web and how having no restrictions at all means giving free reign to hackers, criminals, and sociopaths. It can and will lead only to chaos, anarchy, and just general evil and weirdness. If that’s what you’d like, well, it’s your opinion but no ice cream for you in the future.

With this, I end this article. Thank you for hanging around and enjoying the Cornetto with me. Stay Safe and Stay Informed.

 

(The author takes no responsibility for readers venturing into the Deep Web or having a sudden, irrational craving for ice cream.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Credit : Aryaman Trivedi

 

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