On October 2nd, the Internet drug trafficking
site Silk Road was shut down and it’s founder Ross William Ulbricht was
arrested. The site was an online
platform that connected drug dealers with buyers. More recently, the site went
beyond narcotics and also became a hub to solicit computer hackers and purchase
illegal firearms. In order to remain anonymous on the site, users are
instructed to download software called Tor, which conceals their identity by
routing their traffic through different computers. The Silk Road is operated
under what is known as the “Deep web”.
The “Deep Web” consists of websites that cannot be found through normal
search engines and can only be accessed through Tor. It is estimated that Ulbricht as made close to
$80 million since the conception of the site.
In Suler’s “The
Online Disinhibition effect”, he cites six different factors that help to
explain to variance in self-disclosure between online and in person
activities. I believe there were two
factors in play with the Silk Road case. From a user perspective, I believe dissociative
anonymity was at work. With software
like Tor, in some ways users were able to essentially create a new identity
that was completely different from their true personas. Tor gave users the
freedom to say and do things that may not normally do because there is no
direct connection to their daily lives, in this case that was the buying and
selling of drugs.
Similarly, I believe the actions of the creator of the Silk
Road were driven by invisibility. While
the Silk Road was in operation, Ulbricht participated in an interview with
Forbes magazine only under the condition that it was done on his own terms---through
the Silk Road. Ulbricht went under the
name “Dead Pirate Roberts”. I found it interesting that Ulbricht was so confident
in his invisibility to do such a high profile interview, it’s clear that his motivation came from the fact that no one could see him.
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