Public Law Studies Quarterly

Dark Web and the Right to Anonymity from the Perspective of International Human Rights Law

Document Type : Article

Authors

Farinaz Feizi 1
Amir Hossein Ranjbarian 2

1 PhD Student in International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Prof., Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2022.346149.3143
Abstract
The Internet is like a huge iceberg and the greatness of its visible part (the surface web) has enchanted mankind so much that no legal system can claim to be able to completely control or adequately and respond to. Still, the invisible part of the Internet- which is known as the "dark web" - is also crucially important and the attention paid to this subject by national and international law is very limited. This paper focuses on dark web and tries to explain the importance and necessity of paying attention to it. By studying international and regional instruments, national legislation and legal scholarship the we aim to examine the anonymity of the dark web from the perspective of international human rights. The main research question is the following: is it possible to invoke the right of anonymity in the dark web in international human rights? It is claimed that there is not sufficient evidence to validate the existence of an independent right to anonymity in international human rights law, which fully covers all dimensions of anonymity in dark web. On the other hand, the principles of international human rights law also reject the approach of banning anonymity. 

Keywords

freedom of expression
privacy
anonymity
the dark web
surface web
Subjects

  1.  English

    1. A) Books
    2. Bossuyt, M. J. (1987). Guide to Travaux Préparatoires of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Springer.
    3. Ormsby, E. (2014). Silk Road: The Shocking True Story of the World's Most Notorious Online Drug Market. Pan Macmillan Australia.
    4. Pannu, M., Kay, I., & Harris, D. (2019). "Using dark web crawler to uncover suspicious and malicious websites" In: Ahram, T., Nicholson, D. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity. Proceedings of the AHFE 2019 International Conference on Human Factors in Cybersecurity, Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94782-2_11.

     

     

    1. B) Articles
    2. Al Nabki, M.W., Fidalgo, E., Alegre, E., & De Paz, I. (2017). Classifying Illegal Activities on TOR Network Based on Web Textual Contents”, in: Mirella Lapata; Phil, Blunsom & Alexander Koller (eds.), Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Long Papers, 1, 35-43.
    3. Bailurkar, R., C., P., & Goswami, A. (2017). The Deep International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 8)2), 60- 63.
    4. Beshiri, A. S., & Susuri, A. (2019). Dark Web and Its Impact in Online Anonymity and Privacy: A Critical Analysis and Review. Journal of Computer and Communications, 07(03), 30-43.
    5. Collingwood, L. (2012), Privacy, anonymity and liability: Will anonymous communicators have the last laugh?. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(3), 328-334, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2012.03.002.
    6. Devine, J., & Egger-Sider, F. (2004). Beyond Google: The Invisible Web in the Academic Library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(4), 265-269.
    7. Goldberg, I. (2007). Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Internet III: Ten Years Later. in: Alessandro Acquisti; Stefanos Gritzalis; Costos Lambrinoudakis & Sabrina di Vimercati (eds.), Digital Privacy: Theory, Technology and Practice, Auerbach Publications, 3-16.
    8. Hatta, M. (2020). Deep Web, Dark Web, Dark Net: A Taxonomy of "Hidden" Internet. Annals of Business Administrative Science,  19(6), 277-292.
    9. Moyakine, E. (2016). Online Anonymity in the Modern Digital Age: Quest for a Legal Right. Journal of Information Rights, Policy and Practice, 1(1), 1-21.
    10. Raghavan, S., & Garcia-Molina, H. (2001). Crawling the Hidden Web. in: Peter Apers; Paolo Atzeni; Stefano Ceri; Stefano Paraboschi; Kotagiri Ramamohanarao & Richard Snodgrass (eds.), VLDB 2001, Proceedings of 27th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, Roma, Morgan Kaufmann, 2001, 129-138.

     

    1. C) Reports and Researches
    2. Article 19 Organization (2015). Right to Online Anonymity. Article 19 Organization: London.
    3. Ciancaglini, V., Balduzzi, M., McArdle, R., & Rösler, M. (2015). “Below the Surface: Exploring the Deep Web”. TrendLabs Research Paper, Trend Mixro.
    4. Freedom House (2021). "Freedom on the net 2021: The global drive to control big tech" Freedom House. Washington, DC, USA.
    5. Privacy International (2015). Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression- Anonymity and Encryption in Digital Communications, Privacy International, London.
    6. Weimann, G. (2004). "How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet". United States Institute for Peace, Special Report 116.

     

     

    1. D) Documents
    2. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), General Comment No.16 on Article 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (The right to Respect of Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence, and Protection of Honor and Reputation), Adopted in 32nd Session of Human Rights Committee, April 1988.
    3. Organization of American States (OAS), Report of Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Catalina Botero Marino: Freedom of Expression and the Internet, December 2013.
    4. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Declaration on Freedom of Communication on the internet, Principle 7, May 2003.
    5. The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Recommendation of the Council Concerning Guidelines for Cryptography Policy, Adopted on March 1997, Latest Revision 2022.
    6. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, UN Doc. A/ HRC/ 17/27, 16 May 2011.
    7. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), The Right to Privacy in Digital Age, A/RES/68/167, December 2013.
    8. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), The Right to privacy in Digital Age, A/RES/69/166, December 2014.
    9. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, A/HRC/ 17/27, May 2011.
    10. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet, A/HRC/Res/20/8, July 2012.
    11. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet, A/ HRC/ Res/ 26/13, July 2014.
    12. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, David Kaye, A/HRC/29/32, May 2015.
    13. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Privacy in Digital Age, A/HRC/RES/ 28/16, April 2015 (2).
    14. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet, A/HRC/RES/32/13, July 2016.
    15. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on Internet, A/HRC/RES/38/7, July 2018.

     

    1. E) Cases

    E-1: Supreme Court of the United States

    1. Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310. Supreme Court: 2010. Available at: < https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/558/310/> [accessed 15 July 2022]
    2. McIntyre v. Ohio Election Commission, 514 U.S. 334, Supreme Court 1995. Available at: <https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/514/334/> [accessed 7 May 2021]
    3. National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACCP) v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, Supreme Court, 1958. Available at: <https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/360/240/> [accessed 21 April 2022]
    4. Talley v. California, 363 U.S. 60, Supreme Court 1960. Available at: <https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=592414098425467641&hl=en&as_sdt=2006> [accessed 14 July 2022]

     

    E-2: Supreme Court of Canada

    1. v. Spencer, 2014 SCC 43, [2014] 2 S.C.R. 212 < https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/14233/index.do>, [accessed 7 May 2021.

     

    References In persian:

    1. A) Books
    2. Ashouri, D. (2016). A Dictionary for Human Sciences. Tehran: Markaz Publication, Third Edition (In Persian).

     

    1. B) Articles
    2. Ansari, B. (2020). Right of Access the Internet: Bases and Content. The Judiciary Law Journal, 112, 51-79. Doi: https://doi.org/10.22106/jlj.2020.123458.3279 (In Persian).
    3. Eslami, R., & Feizi, F. (2016). The Right to Be Forgotten and the Challenges Ahead", The Judiciary Law Journal, 94, 13-47. Doi: https://doi.org/10.22106/jlj.2016.21938 (In Persian).
    4. Ghasemzadeh Liasi, F., & Raisi, L. (2020). Application of the rules and regulations of communication in protecting the privacy of citizens in cyberspace. The Public Law Studies Quarterly (PLSQ), 50, 597-616. Doi: https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2018.261128.1778 (In Persian).
    5. Jalali, M., & Tavassoli, S. (2020). Necessity of Establishment of an International Harmonized Legal System against Crimes in Cyberspace. The Public Law Studies Quarterly (PLSQ), 49(4), 1351-137. Doi: https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2019.208109.1271 (In Persian).
Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 54, Issue 3
Autumn 2024
Autumn 2024
Pages 1483-1502

  • Receive Date 22 July 2022
  • Accept Date 24 October 2022

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