The Dark Web is a strange and chaotic place. Its portals come and go, speed problems are frequent, and in most cases, the content we see there is the equivalent of abandoned digital garbage. However, a recent study indicates that the Dark Web lost thousands of sites in a very short time. This is attributed to the disappearance of one of the main hosting services for hidden portals, and another secure email service…
The Dark Web has its uses, no one can deny that. Journalists, activists, threatened victims, censored political opponents, and users who desire a higher level of privacy are the ones who make the most of the benefits of the Dark Web and its low profile. On the other side of the fence, traditional media usually mention the Dark Web in relation to drug trafficking, money laundering, weapons sales, child pornography, and other serious crimes. What I mean by this is that the Dark Web itself is immune to moral labels, and it is its own users who give it a "good" or "bad" tinge... but what happens when users disappear?
According to researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis, creator of the OnionScan survey platform, the size of the Dark Web has drastically decreased. It all started with the fall of the hosting service "Freedom Hosting II", attacked by anonymous hackers. It is estimated that Freedom Hosting II kept online 15-20 percent of hidden .onion sites on the Dark Web. As if that were not enough, the secure email service "SIGAINT" vanished into thin air in mid-February leaving its users isolated, who quickly moved to secure services on the standard Web (Protonmail, for example). Comparing previous scans with the current state of the Dark Web, OnionScan reports that the number of hidden sites dropped from 30,000 to 4,400.
Surely our readers must be thinking "that's an 85 percent drop", but Lewis is the first to admit that OnionScan has limitations in its survey, and its more solid numbers point to around 30 percent. Lewis also took the time to emphasize how difficult it is to maintain a hidden site on the Dark Web. If the plan is for it to grow again, perhaps more robust and easy-to-use tools are needed.
