When the World Wide Web was first used, it was open. All traffic was routed openly, with any middle man able to inspect the source and destination as well as the actual content of the pages. Caching content was easy since requests were easy to view, and content could be stored at any point along the path.
As people started to understand the value of the web, they began to see how the free information could be scraped, indexed, sorted, and served back to people. Many of the first popular websites were lists of other websites to visit – largely human-compiled lists of interests. Over time, the web started growing exponentially, and humans couldn’t possibly keep up with linking to all new interesting content coming online. Search engines were built, and you know the rest.
Because search engines crawled the web to see who was linking to what and how often, the openness of the web became difficult to monetize. The full explanation of how that happened is too long for this post; I may address it in a later post. What’s important is that it led to many websites and social networks closing their doors behind a login. This doesn’t mean they were charging, but it means you had to provide some credential to sign up and sign in. The information on the website was no longer free and open; there was a barrier to entry. Not only was there a barrier, but at any point, the website owner could identify you, single you out, and cut off your access.
The rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram further solidified this trend. These platforms were built on the idea that users would provide personal information in exchange for a personalized experience. In return, they received curated content and the ability to connect with others who shared similar interests. However, this came at a cost: our personal data.
I haven’t mentioned anything about the dark web yet, but you might be thinking, “So what if I have to enter my email or phone number to sign up for Instagram? It’s still free.” That barrier is what makes it a silo of information. The data there belongs to Instagram/Meta.
The concept of a silo is important here. A silo is essentially an isolated container that holds a specific type of content or information. In the case of social media platforms, the silos are our individual profiles, where we store our personal information and interact with others. These silos are not necessarily “dark” in the classical sense, but they do operate outside the open nature of the original web.
When getting a definition of the dark web from a large language model, they often return something like this: “The dark web is part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and requires specialized software, such as the Tor browser, to access.”
If you replace “specialized software” with an account, there isn’t much of a difference. In a way, the dark web is less dark than much of the ‘clear-web’. This is because the clear-web has become increasingly siloed, with users required to provide personal information and create accounts to access certain content or services.
In conclusion, while the term “dark web” typically conjures up images of criminal activity and anonymity, it’s not entirely accurate. The dark web is simply a part of the internet that operates outside the open nature of the original web. What we’ve come to understand as the “clear-web” has also become increasingly siloed, with users required to provide personal information and create accounts to access certain content or services.
The question remains: how can we reclaim the openness of the original web? Can we find a way to balance our desire for personalized experiences with the need for open communication and collaboration? Only time will tell.
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