Description
An Independent and New Statesman Book of the Year Beyond the familiar online world that most of us inhabit--a world of Google, Facebook, and Twitter--lies a vast and often hidden network of sites, communities, and cultures where freedom is pushed to its limits, and where people can be anyone, or do anything, they want. This is the world of Bitcoin and Silk Road, of radicalism and pornography. This is the Dark Net. In this important and revealing book, Jamie Bartlett takes us deep into the digital underworld and presents an extraordinary look at the internet we don't know. Beginning with the rise of the internet and the conflicts and battles that defined its early years, Bartlett reports on trolls, pornographers, drug dealers, hackers, political extremists, Bitcoin programmers, and vigilantes--and puts a human face on those who have many reasons to stay anonymous. Rich with historical research and revelatory reporting, The Dark Net is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at a world that doesn't want to be known.… (more)
Publication
William Heinemann (2014)
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member TulsaTV
Fast and engrossing read.
I'm too pessimistic to be a transhumanist, but like technology too much to be an anarcho-primitivist. Also don't have much faith in the libertarian vision that everything will work out great if only "we" have maximum freedoms. These and other issues are explored by talking
The first chapter should be read by forum moderators to understand the psychologies at work with trolling.
I'm too pessimistic to be a transhumanist, but like technology too much to be an anarcho-primitivist. Also don't have much faith in the libertarian vision that everything will work out great if only "we" have maximum freedoms. These and other issues are explored by talking
Show More
directly to their proponents.The first chapter should be read by forum moderators to understand the psychologies at work with trolling.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Mary_Overton
From the conclusion:
"When I first started writing this book, I had in mind something of an expose. That I would lift the lid on the seedy underbelly of hidden internet subcultures, revealing the dangers of life online. I was prepared (maybe I even hoped?) to be indignant and outraged. I imagined
"That was not the case. Without exception, I left each subculture more confused and uncertain than when I'd entered. Not because everything was pleasing and uplifting -- it wasn't of course -- but because it was far more complicated than I'd anticipated. Where I expected moral certainty, I found ambiguity....
"In the essay 'Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War,' George Orwell wrote of being confronted with an enemy who was fleeing while trying to hold up his falling trousers. 'I had come here to shoot at "Fascists,"' he wrote, 'but a man who is holding up his trousers isn't a "Fascist," he is visibly a fellow-creature, similar to yourself.'
"Most of the chief protagonists in this book I met online first, and offline second. I always like them more in the real world. By removing the face-to-face aspect of human interaction, the internet dehumanizes people, and our imagination often turns them into inflated monsters, more terrifying because they are in the shadows. Meeting them in person rehumanizes them again. Whether it was anarchist Bitcoin programmers, trolls, extremists, pornographers, or enthusiastic self-harmers, all were more welcoming and pleasant, more interesting and multifaceted, than I'd imagined. Ultimately, the dark net is nothing more than a mirror of society. Distorted, magnified, and mutated by the strange and unnatural conditions of life online -- but still recognizably us." (239-240)
"When I first started writing this book, I had in mind something of an expose. That I would lift the lid on the seedy underbelly of hidden internet subcultures, revealing the dangers of life online. I was prepared (maybe I even hoped?) to be indignant and outraged. I imagined
Show More
this book would conclude with a series of very clear moral declarations: drug market places are unequivocally dangerous. Suicide forums are indisputably harmful. Neo-Nazis are evil. Convicted child sex offenders are beyond even a scintilla of understanding. All very black and white. All very straightforward."That was not the case. Without exception, I left each subculture more confused and uncertain than when I'd entered. Not because everything was pleasing and uplifting -- it wasn't of course -- but because it was far more complicated than I'd anticipated. Where I expected moral certainty, I found ambiguity....
"In the essay 'Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War,' George Orwell wrote of being confronted with an enemy who was fleeing while trying to hold up his falling trousers. 'I had come here to shoot at "Fascists,"' he wrote, 'but a man who is holding up his trousers isn't a "Fascist," he is visibly a fellow-creature, similar to yourself.'
"Most of the chief protagonists in this book I met online first, and offline second. I always like them more in the real world. By removing the face-to-face aspect of human interaction, the internet dehumanizes people, and our imagination often turns them into inflated monsters, more terrifying because they are in the shadows. Meeting them in person rehumanizes them again. Whether it was anarchist Bitcoin programmers, trolls, extremists, pornographers, or enthusiastic self-harmers, all were more welcoming and pleasant, more interesting and multifaceted, than I'd imagined. Ultimately, the dark net is nothing more than a mirror of society. Distorted, magnified, and mutated by the strange and unnatural conditions of life online -- but still recognizably us." (239-240)
Show Less
LibraryThing member PDCRead
The internet can be a wonderful thing, Full of facts, fun and cats. But all that glitters is not necessarily gold, and this is so very true with the internet. Bartlett has decided to scratch the surface of the mirror ball and see what lurks beneath.
And it isn't nice.
As he wades through the nastiest
Grim stuff indeed. With the revelations on just how much the security service monitor or internet us, as revealed by Snowden he also looks at the ways that people are using PGP to ensure privacy from the modern Big Brother. It does have som implications, but the point he makes is that they should be tracking the genuine threats to our society, not just hoovering up every single thing.
Fairly well written, and could be read by someone who isn't that technical, it is a fascinating peek behind the gloss and glam of most peoples experience of the internet.
And it isn't nice.
As he wades through the nastiest
Show More
parts of the internet, he writes about trolls, the availability of illegal drugs from Silk Road, legal and illegal pornography and the use of TOR for anonymity. He meets extremists, attends a cam show and speaks to those that use sites to advance their eating disorders and that encourage suicide.Grim stuff indeed. With the revelations on just how much the security service monitor or internet us, as revealed by Snowden he also looks at the ways that people are using PGP to ensure privacy from the modern Big Brother. It does have som implications, but the point he makes is that they should be tracking the genuine threats to our society, not just hoovering up every single thing.
Fairly well written, and could be read by someone who isn't that technical, it is a fascinating peek behind the gloss and glam of most peoples experience of the internet.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
I don't know that I can do a review of this book that will do it justice, so, instead, I'll simply state two things it did for me.
The first is, it truly scared the living sh*t out of me with the chapters on some of the incredibly broken humans behind some of the sites.
The second is, it now has me
This is a book that's going to stay with me for some time.
Read it. Read it and have your eyes opened to what's out there.
The first is, it truly scared the living sh*t out of me with the chapters on some of the incredibly broken humans behind some of the sites.
The second is, it now has me
Show More
reevaluating how much I want to be online. Right now, the answer is, very, very little.This is a book that's going to stay with me for some time.
Read it. Read it and have your eyes opened to what's out there.
Show Less
ISBN
0434023159 / 9780434023158