Police Warn: Don't Visit Dark Web

My husband and I invited my uncle (an active duty Police Captain) and his girlfriend over for dinner.

I thought an interesting topic of discussion would be the horrific stories I’ve heard about The Dark Web — you know; terrorists doing live Zoom calls, hidden websites where corporate cannibals cook and eat people on camera, gratuitous porn sites, drug deals. That kind of lurid thing.

Whilst running my mouth…. it never occurred to me that simply wanting to visit ‘The Dark Web’ could result in very dire consequences for the curious web surfer. the look on my face when my Police Captain uncle blurts out: “Elaine, you don’t want to do that…anyone on American soil that someone accesses the dark web that person automatically goes on a government watch list.”

THE F/r/UCK!

He continued in his usual stoic tone, “And you can’t be removed from that process for at least six weeks of intense investigation — that’s six weeks if you’re a squeaky clean harmless type — you won’t be told what’s going on; you won’t know anything about it. But every corner of your life, including friends and co-workers lives, will be discreetly looked into from parking tickets to medical records to what times you took a piss. ”

Government watch list? Just for visiting the dark web? Nothing like that had ever entered my mind. I totally believe my Uncle. But I had a few important questions for him.

“How on earth”, I asked him, “can the Feds have enough manpower to surveil the thousands and thousands of people who must frequent the Dark Web each day?”

My Uncle told me something that shocked me even more than hearing people who visit The Dark Web get put on surveillance lists. He informed me, “There are 2 million Americans who have Top Secret Security Clearances in America.”

I checked. He’s right (link).

“And over 5 million Americans work in some capacity for the security agencies in this country. It’s not limited to the FBI. You could be ‘looked at’ by Homeland Security or the Department of Defense or Darpa or the NSA or any configuration of all of them. Hell…your local police department can be asked to investigate you. I know about this because our precinct are handed these investigations all the time. Sometimes we dismiss surfers within forty-eight hours. Other times we watch people for two and three years. It all depends on a lot of different factors. But what you really need to know as my niece… is that everyone who goes through the trouble of accessing The Dark Web on American soil… gets looked into. Your name goes on a watch list.”

I’m pretty sure that a lot of the cool guys on Medium will refute this article. But I see it as food for thought.

Teenagers are the most hard headed about this issue according to my Uncle. Teens have a natural propensity for curiosity and adventure. They love doing things that they shouldn't be doing. They throw caution to the wind. Many of them end up being targeted by government surveillance and being placed on watch lists because of not only visiting the dark web--but also interacting with dark websites and suspicious people they know nothing about.

Teens are good for insisting that this entire article is just paranoia. They want to do what they want to do. My Uncle has spoken at many high schools where the kids just yawned and shrugged as he warned them about the possibility of being placed on the government's national security radar.

But I am listening to reason.

I do believe my Uncle is right. And visiting The Dark Web isn’t all that bucket list for me.

Just a heads up friends.

_________

NOTE: I originally wrote this article for my MEDIUM page.

*(link: https://medium.com/thought-thinkers/warnings-of-a-police-officer-9a845fa87337 )