Illegal activities prosecutable by law in the real life can be committed on the internet alike. In the healthcare domain, we refer mainly to selling of illegal and counterfeit drugs, exchange of pedo-pornographic material and marketing of stolen medical records. These illegal activities are made easier by recent developments of the Internet that medical community must be aware of: darknet and bitcoin. The first allows anonymous surfing and the last anonymous financial transactions.
This is exactly what Masoni et al. 2016 looked at, let's go over the basics first.
What are the Darknet/Darkweb/Deepweb, bitcoin and TOR ?
Beside the Internet where data are mostly transferred between computers in clear text there is another side of the internet, named darknet, where data are encrypted and IP addresses masked allowing anonymous surfing. Born from a project of the US Navy aimed at protecting privacy of Internet users and supporting freedom of expression in authoritarian states, The Onion Router (TOR) network is now the most popular architecture of darknet. With this type of protocol it is very difficult to find who commits illegal activities. Bitcoin is defined as a “decentralized digital currency system” allowing peer to peer anonymous transactions without a central authority control. Coupled with TOR network, bitcoin adds an extra layer of secrecy so as criminals can mask their financial transactions.
The marketplaces
Similar to e-Bay, Silk Road interconnects sellers and buyers with online discussions that drives sales of drugs on the basis of price, purity and speed of delivery. Many experts agree that Silk Road is a good example on how new technological advances are transforming crimes. The features of darknet and bitcoin make also difficult enforcement actions to succeed. In October 2013 Silk Road was seized and closed by FBI but promptly alternative marketplaces flourished and Silk Road 2.0 replaced the old one.
Healthcare & Drugs
Coming to healthcare issues, many sustain that illegal drugs trade can be thwarted banning bitcoin. Supporters of online drugs trade doesn’t lack: for example MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine,popularly known as ecstasy) seems the most popular drug sold on Silk Road 2.0and if someone buys it from a high-rated seller he can be quite sure that he is buying MDMA in its purest form. When MDMA is purchased on the street the peril grows because it is often contaminated with life-threatening adulterants. In this case darknet represents a source of pure and safe drugs that minimizes harm and loss of life due to adulterated drugs. Furthermore, others sustain that darknet can reduce violence related to open air drugs trade.
Making bitcoin illegal as a solution?
The Authors think that considering bitcoin illegal will reduce illicit drugs trade, so acting on drugs prevention. Furthermore this action will simplify the detection of who pays for child pornography. Until now, very few actions has been taken on darknet and bitcoin regulation by Internet policy makers. Such an attending behavior leaves us at the mercy of technological progress with the thought, wrongly, that technology will solve problems created by itself. Instead it is more frequent that technology brings new problems that law has to face with.
Conclusion
The lack of a central body governing the Internet is one of the main reasons that makes its regulation such a complex issue. Internet is conducted by many governmental, academic and private organizations at a national and international level. The main aim of these groups and structures is to keep a multi-stakeholder government of the Internet, not a multistate one. Among these organizations there isn’t a complete agreement on the concept of Internet governance. What is now emerging from the debate is the need to go beyond the interoperability of infrastructural aspects to move towards regulation of content exchanged over the network. In other words our efforts have to be concentrated on legal, economic, socio-cultural issues to maintain the Internet as a public good.
Original source: Masoni et al. 2016: Darknet and bitcoin, the obscure and anonymous side of the internet in healthcare
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