On: The Dark Web as You Know It Is a Myth

[nkoren]

I suspect that history will show the vast majority of "dark web" coverage to be simply another moral panic, analogous (and in some cases almost identical) to the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic of the 1980s.[1] Happy to see an article which goes against that flow.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse

[Nursie → nkoren]

That came up again here in the UK recently, there was a case where child custody was at issue and the mother and her new partner got the kids to lie about their father.

The lies were incredibly obvious to anyone that's read about the previous incidences of Satanic Ritual Abuse panics, but it still took the press some time to catch on. It also inspired the usual crop of well-meaning fools saying things like - "well clearly these children are traumatised and this is their reality, even if there is no evidence"

[wtbob → nkoren]

Well, unlike satanic ritual abuse, the dark web actually exists. But yes, there is an element of moral panic to it.

[nkoren → wtbob]

Agreed, there is more reality to the dark web than there was to Satanic Ritual Abuse. Nonetheless, the panic:reality ratio is probably something like 99:1, vs. 100:0 for SRA. In both cases (as with any moral panic), it can be terribly dangerous when these kind of panics start to drive policy and policing.