The internet is a contraction of the word ‘inter’ which literally means ‘reciprocity’ ‘between’ or ‘among’, and the word ‘net’ which is an abbreviation of networks, i.e., a system of interconnected elements or connectivity of nodes. The internet is perhaps the greatest invention in recent history.
Although the internet was founded and operates on the principles of liberalism, globalism, ‘openism’, ‘connectivism’, and ‘decentralism’. It, however, has a complex and multifaceted history that spans several decades of numerous technological advancements, innovations, and collaborations across disciplines, time, and space. The invention of the internet is not only at the centre of the current civilization but will greatly influence the forms future civilizations will assume.
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The World Wide Web (www) is an aftermath of the internet that was invented by a British Computer scientist, Tim Berners Lee in the late 1980s. This invention revolutionised the internet by introducing a system of hyperlinks of documents on computer devices which can now be globally accessed and viewed the web browsers anywhere the internet reaches in the world. The implication is that every carrier of information (say, humans or things) at the edge of every node is not only accessible but also connectable (as seen in social media technologies and the Internet of Things (i.e., IOTs)). The new ease of availability, accessibility, and connectivity explains the meaning of the ubiquitous adage of ‘the world is a global village’.
The current age seems to be overloaded with information due to the massive availability and accessibility afforded by the internet and the World Wide Web (www). Despite this, every bit of information on the World Wide Web is generally wired to be identifiable, connectable, and traceable by search engines and web browser applications on our various devices.
The novel ease of availability, accessibility, and connectivity is possible through the taxonomic indexing and hyperlinks of the web servers (indexing and hyperlinks aid easy crawling of the servers for information), the uniform resource locators (URLs) (consisting mainly of the protocol, often represented as http//: or https//:), the different levels of domain nomenclatures (e.g., www.example.com). The others are the path to the resource (e.g., “/webpage”) and sometimes a level of protective measures such as firewalls, SSL/TLS encryption, and security patches to safeguard against cyber threats like hacking, data breaches, malware attacks, and other possible fraudulent activities.
The current information overload on the World Wide Web (www) is indeed drowning humanity. Imagine over 1.13 billion websites currently hosted on the World Wide Web with over 300 more being added per minute. Although only a minute portion of these websites (less than 20 percent) is actively maintained and regularly visited. Nevertheless, the size is simply massive and practically impossible to exist as tangible documents (imagine the size of the content that is continuously generated by over 4.5 billion people and uncountable things from all over the world). It might, however, be more shocking to know that the information on the surface web (i.e., the normally accessible web spaces on the internet) is merely the tip of the iceberg when compared to the enigmatic depth of the other web. The surface web constitutes only a small fraction of the total content on the internet, the spectrum of the other web is in fact, about 400 to 500 times larger than the surface web.
The other web where the actual load of information on the internet lies is generally regarded as ‘the deep web’. It consists of a varying depth of web that is neither indexed nor operates like the ‘surface web’. The ‘dark web’, for instance, is in the depth of the ‘deep web’ and it is neither indexed nor detectable by regular web browsers. The ‘dark web’ exists on layers of networks that require unique software configurations (such as Tor, i.e., the Onion Router) for authorization and access. This configuration is coded to guarantee a high level of anonymity and privacy.
Beyond the size of information, other fundamental distinctions between the ‘surface web’ and ‘dark web’ are in their level of accessibility, anonymity, legitimacy, content types, and activities. For instance, the surface web is generally accessible with regular web browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Edge, etc. The content types are mostly informational websites, news articles, social media platforms, e-commerce sites, blogs, and so on. The surface web mostly provides platforms for open and transparent communication, collaboration, entertainment, and e-commerce and soon.
On the other hand, the ‘dark web’ is generally inaccessible on traditional browsers but only with specialised software that guarantees the anonymity of users. Although the content structures of the ‘dark web’ are mostly similar to that of the ‘surface web’ (such as social networks, blogs, wikis, forums, etc.). The ‘dark web’ however, promotes mostly unconventional or conventionally illegitimate activities. Particularly, the activities, identities, currencies, and locations of ‘dark web’ users stay anonymous and cannot be tracked due to the multi-layered encryption system.
The activities on the dark web can be best described with the great Afrobeat crooners, Fela Kuti’s popular slang as ‘the underground games’. This implies that if certain aspects of the regular web on the internet are perceived as bad, then the happenings on the ‘wild west’ streets of the ‘dark web’ are better not imagined. The activities of the ‘’dark web’ are the height of conventionalities and illegalities.
In essence, there is another side to the internet with distinct characteristics, functions, and user communities. While the everyday web arena (i.e., the surface, or the clear web) is easily accessible and used for a variety of obvious purposes. The ‘dark web’, on the other hand, operates in a more hidden and clandestine manner, catering to users that require an abnormal level of anonymity and privacy for various activities that mostly are conventionally illegitimate.
Tolu Olagunju is a researcher, School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos
