Deep web (2015)

Qixing Xue, Justin Luce, and Emily Baker

Intent & plot

The documentary "Deep Web" is an homage to the Silk Road. By describing the effects of the Silk Road and the prosecution of its alleged founder, the filmmaker provides commentary on the power of the government and the trustworthiness of online characters.

The filmmaker comments on trust by calling into question the character of The Silk Road's founder, Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). The Silk Road - seemingly - was a black market utopia, where fake driver's licenses, almost any licit and illicit drug, and credit cards were available for purchase. Customers could even comment on the quality of a seller's product as if a review for cocaine was a simple Amazon review for a coloring book. Throughout the documentary, DPR's manifesto-like exchanges with a journalist are shown. DPR writes about the libertarian principles on which the Silk Road was founded, how much he loves the individuals that support the Silk Road, and Austrian economic theory. He is presented as a likable character, with even the journalist who interviewed him admitting he really liked DPR. Admittedly, it is hard not to agree with Dread Pirate Roberts as he is presented, a little guy facilitating "ethical" but illicit capitalism. For example, stolen goods, counterfeit goods, and hitmen were not allowed to be sold on Silk Road.

DPR's character is further challenged when it is revealed they allegedly paid money to multiple murder-for-hire businesses. This allegation conflicts with the philosophical persona put on by DPR, and the journalist who interviewed him calls this a "schizophrenic" difference between the Dread Pirate Roberts he interviewed and the man who was arrested [1]. But should the viewer really be surprised that the individual running The Silk Road, an online marketplace selling illegal products, is also willing to murder to protect it? Dread Pirate Roberts reminds us all to not readily trust anyone on the internet.

Deep Web is a cautionary tale to both privacy advocates and the casual internet user that Big Brother is watching; Not even the deep web, or the dark web, is protected from government interference. When the Silk Road was first launched in 2011, the viewer learns that law enforcement quickly joined and posed as drug vendors. Through a series of messages, law enforcement learned of DPR's criminal behavior and obtained enough evidence for an indictment on Dread Pirate Roberts, but there was no real name attached to the pseudonym.

DPR's identity was confirmed through an operation enabled by information received on hidden internationally-located Silk Road servers. The government believed Ross Ulbricht moonlighted as DPR, but how the Silk Road's back-end servers were located in Iceland to connect these two individuals was not provided to the Ulbricht family. The affidavit provided by the FBI investigator has been met with lots of scrutiny from security professionals, who do not believe it is accurate or plausible. This is highly problematic and gives rise to whether Ulbricht's fourth amendment rights were violated. If a classified tool was used to identify the Silk Road servers, then documentation from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court or another judicial body should confirm that the tool used to identify a US citizen was reviewed before employed [2]. The absence of this documentation proves that the US government is a powerful entity and may not necessarily be held to the same judicial standards that individuals are held to.

A short text also says that some officers involved in the investigation had transferred significant amounts of bitcoin to their personal account/s.

References:

1. Winter, Alexander, director. Deep Web. BOND360, 2015.

2. Bazan, Elizabeth B. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: An Overview of the Statutory Framework and U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review Decisions. N.p., 2007. Print.