Psychology of Social Media Class Week 4 Reflection May 21

The guest speaker Paul talked about the negative issues social media brought to the society. The topic including the hidden TOR Network and the prosperity of pornography. According to Professor Paul, the TOR Network is what we called the “dark web.” Its special feature to escape from Internet tracking makes the TOR Network one of the biggest markets for illegal products. People often call the TOR Network the “EBay of drugs.” Other than drug dealing, TOR Network is also a host for activities against the constitution but it cannot be tracked by the government. Fortunately, inside of the dark web, there is something called the “Angel net” where just people such as police offices and FBI agencies spy on any illegal activities on the TOR Network. Most Hackers use software to connect to the dark web. They also hack and turn other people’s computers into “drums” that work as extra resource to help sustain the TOR Network. According to Professor Paul, the simple use of the TOR Network does not against any law. Nevertheless, it is a lot easier for the TOR Network users to get themselves into troubles either by accidentally broken the law or by the attacks from other hackers. One infamous example of the TOR Network is the WikiLeaks. Since the TOR Network does not usually cross with the service web (the www web), in order for information to be spread, a platform is indeed. WikiLeaks is hypothetically an ideal platform of that. When the U.S. solider Julian Assange used TOR Network to get access to the top-secret data from the military, he need WikiLeaks to get the information out. Nevertheless, the same con for the dark web can also be a great advantage of it! On the countries where people’s freedom of is oppressed and where the main stream media are controlled such as China and North Korea, the TOR Network could be the only source for people to get information from the outside world and to tell people from other countries what really happened there. Moreover, the existence of the TOR Web also help discovering information that Governments from different countries attempt to cover up unlawfully. There is also a method in TOR Network called the “Honey Pot” which often being used to discover political or corporation spies. Basicly, experts will create some information that is “too valuable to resist” for hackers or spies; once they put their hands into the “honey pot,” their identities and intentions will be exposed. This is also a warning for those who like to play around with the TOR Network because you never know whether the information you are try to access is a Honey Pot set up by FBI or other government authorities.

The next issue that Professor Paul mentioned is the kingdom of pornography. Since it is almost impossible to control or eliminate, the best way to deal with this kind of issue is to regulate them. According to Paul, decade away these pornographic website were able to hide behind the .com webs. In other word, it could be next to an educational website for elementary school! Today, the government regulated the pornography websites into the .xxx or other criteria so they can be easily identified and blocked.