[genewitch]

facebook is "dark web"[0], everything in my gmail folders is "dark web", anything that john q. public can't see on the internet is literally "dark web"/"dark net" - that is, greater than 90% of all content behind a URI/URL is "dark" - unsearchable.

That the media and politicians use it as a negative connotation speaks volumes. "Dark whatever" != illegal content.

[0] facebook by virtue of their php lineage and gatekeeping have made (and kept) most of the content behind their own walls; unsearchable on any search engine - ironically, this includes their own. contrast this to something like reddit or stackexchange, which will gladly show up in search results.

[Felk]

I believe you are confusing dark net with deep net

[genewitch]

Evidently so, although one is a subset of the other. I think saying "it requires special software or authentication" merely adds to the confusion, here.

For example, a site may require tor, or it may require a VPN connection to the same network the site lives on - is there a functional difference? And gating content behind authentication would be a good definition for "deep web" too.

However i can see the appeal of having "dark web" or "dark net" signify illicit things, but we also have "dark fiber", so something will have to give.