[NCUC-DISCUSS] email in response to ICANN blogpost

Michael Oghia mike.oghia at gmail.com
Thu Jul 13 12:44:16 CEST 2017


Thanks for clarifying Niels, sorry about that.

-M

On Thu, Jul 13, 2017 at 12:25 PM, Niels ten Oever <
lists at digitaldissidents.org> wrote:

> Disagree that this is a good source. It repeats as lot of the BS and
> gossip around 'the darkweb' without substantiating it. Most famously the
> 'hitman - claim'.
>
> The one source they use to say that almost everything is illegal on the
> darkweb
> (https://www.ourinternet.org/sites/default/files/publications/no20_0.pdf)
>
> says:
>
> Classification  of  web  pages  is  a  difficult  task,  and  while
> there exist automatic classifiers based on machine learning,
> the  dataset  in  this  case  was  small  enough  that  manual
> classification  was  not  unduly  onerous.  Additionally,  the
> authors  felt  that  given  the  range  and  complex,  technical
> nature of some of the content, automatic classifiers would
> be insufficient due to difficulty in interpreting context and
> meaning (Samarawickrama and Jayaratne 2011)
>
> and it concludes:
>
> This  paper  does  suggest  that  child  abuse  content  is  the
> most popular type of content on the Tor Dark Net. While
> law  enforcement  may  crawl  such  sites,  the  number  of
> requests that would be seen would be only a tiny fraction,
> and hence not skew the outline ratios. Similarly, denial of
> service attacks were not observed and so are also unlikely
> to  account  for  the  high  requests.  The  usage  of  Tor2Web
> may underrepresent some categories, but it is not currently
> clear whether, or why, such groups would exclusively use
> this tool.
> An  explicit  categorization  of  sites  into  illegal  and  legal
> was  not  undertaken,  but  it  was  abundantly  clear  to  the
> authors  that  the  majority  of  sites  were  of  questionable
> legality.  While  anonymity  and  privacy  tools  such  as  Tor
> might fight online surveillance, they also give an easy and
> accessible route for those with criminal motivations. There
> are  alternatives,  such  as  botnets,  available  for  criminal
> activity, but these do not negate the comparative ease with
> which Tor can be used.
> It is technically possible to block Tor, although it is likely
> that the Tor Project will deploy countermeasures resulting
> in  the  endeavour  descending  into  a  cat-and-mouse  game
> of  “circumvent-and-censor.”  In  any  case,  Tor  does  not
> provide the absolute impunity that is often attributed to it.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Niels
>
>
>
>
>
> On 07/13/2017 12:16 PM, Michael Oghia wrote:
> > In case anyone is interested, this is the best resource I've seen on the
> > dark / deep web in a while that also happens to be an infographic:
> >
> > http://www.visualcapitalist.com/dark-web/
> >
> > Best,
> > -Michael
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 12:13 PM, Niels ten Oever
> > <lists at digitaldissidents.org <mailto:lists at digitaldissidents.org>>
> wrote:
> >
> >     I've been working with Dave to update blogpost, and the blog now is
> >     addressing our concerns.
> >
> >     https://www.icann.org/news/blog/the-dark-web-the-land-of-
> hidden-services
> >     <https://www.icann.org/news/blog/the-dark-web-the-land-of-
> hidden-services>
> >
> >     Thanks everyone for making this happen so quickly, now we ensured
> >     that Hidden Services are not getting a worse name than they deserve.
> >
> >     Cheers,
> >
> >     Niels
> >
> >
> >     On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 11:03:41AM -0400, farzaneh badii wrote:
> >     > Thanks Niels.
> >     >
> >     > We have been discussing this with EC and we can approve it as an
> NCUC
> >     > statement.
> >     >
> >     > Best
> >     >
> >     > Farzaneh
> >     >
> >     > Farzaneh
> >     >
> >     > On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 10:59 AM, Niels ten Oever <
> >     > lists at digitaldissidents.org <mailto:lists at digitaldissidents.org>>
> >     wrote:
> >     >
> >     > > Hi all,
> >     > >
> >     > > This morning the ICANN VP for Security and IT published a
> >     blogpost which
> >     > > appeared in this mornings newsletter, as well as on ICANNs
> website
> >     > > concerning the Dark Web.
> >     > >
> >     > >
> >     https://www.icann.org/news/blog/the-dark-web-the-land-of-
> hidden-services
> >     <https://www.icann.org/news/blog/the-dark-web-the-land-of-
> hidden-services>
> >     > >
> >     > > A number of us got together and drafted an email to the author
> >     to give
> >     > > him an opportunity to correct the falsehoods that are stated in
> >     the blog.
> >     > >
> >     > > We have two options:
> >     > >
> >     > > 1. Send the letter on behalf of the NCUC
> >     > > 2. Sign the letter in your personal capacities.
> >     > >
> >     > > Let's discuss it here, but feel free to already sign (as a
> fallback
> >     > > option).
> >     > >
> >     > > You can find the draft letter here:
> >     > >
> >     > >
> >     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xB19ycvHPH9TagLjEiAnOpbkLbx9j
> >     <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xB19ycvHPH9TagLjEiAnOpbkLbx9j>
> >     > > dD49y3CAKVLoac/edit
> >     > >
> >     > > Best,
> >     > >
> >     > > Niels
> >     > >
> >     > > --
> >     > > Niels ten Oever
> >     > > Head of Digital
> >     > >
> >     > > Article 19
> >     > > www.article19.org <http://www.article19.org>
> >     > >
> >     > > PGP fingerprint    8D9F C567 BEE4 A431 56C4
> >     > >                      678B 08B5 A0F2 636D 68E9
> >     > > _______________________________________________
> >     > > Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> >     > > Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org <mailto:Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
> >     > > http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
> >     <http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss>
> >     > >
> >
> >     --
> >
> >     Niels ten Oever
> >     Head of Digital
> >
> >     Article 19
> >     www.article19.org <http://www.article19.org>
> >
> >     PGP fingerprint    2458 0B70 5C4A FD8A 9488
> >                        643A 0ED8 3F3A 468A C8B3
> >
> >
> >     _______________________________________________
> >     Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> >     Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org <mailto:Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
> >     http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
> >     <http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> > Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org
> > http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
> >
>
> --
> Niels ten Oever
> Head of Digital
>
> Article 19
> www.article19.org
>
> PGP fingerprint    8D9F C567 BEE4 A431 56C4
>                      678B 08B5 A0F2 636D 68E9
> _______________________________________________
> Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org
> http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss
>
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