Can A Dark Market Make Human Smuggling Safer

Original post (with reference links) here: http://jdennehy.com/can-the-dark-web-make-human-smuggling-safer/

In the hidden corners of the internet business is booming. The first large digital black market, The Silk Road, was shut down in 2013. Since then it has been replaced by Silk Road 2.0 which already is bigger than the original by an order of magnitude. Dozens of other markets also now exist on the dark web, usually only accessible through anonymizing yourself on the Tor network. Many of these market places have certain restrictions, for example no guns or child porn, but for the most part they exist without any prohibition on sales. Illegal drugs are the most common items.

Research is beginning to come out that suggests that The Silk Road and its kin have made drugs safer. According to one paper, "With Silk Road functioning to considerable degree at the wholesale/broker market level, its virtual location should reduce violence, intimidation and territorialism." Buyers also rate and review sellers which means that the highest ranked sellers are the most consistent. Since drug overdoses are often caused by inconsistencies with the purity of drugs, evidence suggests these markets also make the experience more predictable and thus safer for the end user as well.

What about human smuggling? How would a digital black market based on reputation affect another illegal and often dangerous trade?

(Human smuggling implies consent between the migrant and smuggler. Human trafficking is when humans cross borders against their will. This is only about human smuggling.)

Thousands of migrants die each year crossing borders. Around 2,000 Africans drown in the Mediterranean each year and large numbers are left for dead in the deserts between Mexico and the United States. Bad actors within the trade also take advantage in other ways that are hard to track, often by robbing or raping their 'customers.' The smugglers future business is unlikely to suffer in the way that a merchant on The Silk Road would in a comparable scenario. I'm not concerned with encouraging or discouraging the act, I'm interested to know if it can be safer.

Can a digital marketplace be created to facilitate human smuggling contracts, and could they be developed in such a way as to make the practice safer?


Comments


[16 Points] Trappy_Pandora:

Could we not do this, please? We're on LE's backburner, lets not give them cause to allocate more resources against us.


[4 Points] guy0ndaCorna:

No because the people don't change. It's another method, but executed by the same shot callers. It may make it more safe in the sense of communication security, due to the tor network and Pgp, but this doesn't change the people in charge, just their methods of operation. You gotta be a twisted fuck to be involved with it in the first place.


[3 Points] None:

I'm sorry, I know you're well intentioned, but I would move mountains to prevent a site like this from ever existing. I know the slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy, but what we do is risky enough as it is. I'd be fine with people who do this using some of the techniques and OPSEC procedures that we do and learning from them, but NO DNM in their right mind would host this activity, and myself and probably many others would stop supporting the site. (and many would probably actively try to shut it down for fear of the heat it might bring) The risk of it turning into trafficking rather than smuggling for the purpose of rescue is also fairly significant. Vendors on the DNM are already unreliable a good percentage of the time. It is irresponsible to be putting vulnerable humans in that kind of situation.


[1 Points] wedfg6:

This is for smuggling, not trafficking. There is a huge difference. I think we can all agree trafficking is bad, the question is when someone wants to cross a border without government permission, is there a way "customers" can leave a review, which might influence future customers and help steer them away from certain people. There is no customer when its trafficking, there's no one consenting party looking for another consenting party. It's not the same thing at all.


[1 Points] Xenidae:

First off, you talking about a much larger product than a ounce of pot. Roughly over 100kg, the package is sizable unless dealing with children. It makes noise, deficates, consumes dring transport and has all the difficulties of ordering cattle shipped. Unfornaute, it's also illegial and any police who see you will stop the shipment or demand a heavy payment. (Not always when they catch you.)

Furthermore, the internet only makes selling cheaper. You still need to make the product's qualities available for searchers to find; since the 'power' of the internet to sell exactly what a user wants is based on providing the user with information abotu what they will be recieving. I can see many who might purchase a chattel mayfind slight defects undesirable. (Or even things like the wrong eyecolor.) Unfornaute, the product does not come in easily describeable colors and shapes.

So no, I don't think so unless you can get enough darknet bandwith to use full VR or provide 'images' that surround the product. (The inverse of Google's image domes that you can take with android.)

I hope this helped you understand the problems with selling large chattel that have many problems with their vaguarities.

There is third the problem thuat unlike cattel, chattel is used in way that require the user to be very attracted to the chattel. (I do suppose selling chattel for medical experimentation in eastern europe, africa, arabia and parts of Southeast Asia might work. But…that does not require the same level of customer interaction before they purchase the product that the sales to non-medical would.)


[1 Points] Throwaway_concept:

Just plug the mexicans in, wire em to america.

but really what the fuck?


[1 Points] iamjustsomejerk:

you could always send them to a drop address in 9 separate boxes via priority overnight with assembly instructions in one of the boxes. they would even fit through a mail slot that way :P


[-4 Points] a333d7hdhad7:

While id pay hansomely for a hot little 12yr fucktoy be mailed to me id want her not to arrive dead.