Would the Real Dread Pirate Roberts Please Stand Up

The Deep Web  introduces us to the world of the dark net. Though this world was created for the government and many journalists use it for good, it has taken a turn. Some may say that this turn was evil and others may say it did enough good to balance out the bad. The truth? That is something I can’t tell you. This documentary takes us on the silk road or should I say to The Silk Road, a dark net website used specifically to sell and buy drugs of many sorts. When there is a large group of followers like this, somewhere in the midst there is a leader. In this case, the leader is Dread Pirate Roberts. Is he the original Dread Pirate Roberts or is his name just being passed down from the Dread Pirate Roberts before him?

An arrest was made and Ross Ulbricht is the suspected leader of the Silk Road.  Was Ulbricht the real DPR or was he being framed? Many arguments are made that would disagree but there was enough evidence for the arrest. The documentary offers up that the government handled this all wrong and that they weren’t in the right. A valid argument that failed because Ross Ulbricht was then sentenced to life in prison without parole. Was it all fair? Or did the government take advantage of their power? This documentary effectively argues that the dark net is used largely for good by humanizing the people involved and making the audience ask these questions about a situation that has been painted as black and white. 

In 2013 the FBI shut down the Silk Road. This film takes us on the arrest of Ross Ulbricht and gives us a quick brief of who he is. Was Ulbricht the man they say he was? This film proves to us that Ulbricht was, in fact, capable of designing Silk Road but was he behind the bad that came from it? Was he really Dread Pirate Roberts or was he one of the handful that had access? The journalist, Andy Greenberg, was able to get an interview via messaging with Dread Pirate Roberts and he states that he did not start The Silk Road and he was not the only DPR.  One of the many angles was to show that the Silk Road was made for something deeper. It was said that the major reason was to bring an end to the drug world. In the drug world, there is violence and death but with The Silk Road it took out that face to face communication as it was anonymous, which seems safer to an extent. 

This film targets a wide range of audiences. For those who are interested in what the dark web is, for those who want to prove the conspiracy of the government, for those who enjoy documentaries, and those who support Ross Ulbricht are just a few examples of a target audience. I think the targeted audience is very much the audience who has watched and supported this film. I think those behind this documentary achieved much of what their goal was. It talked about the cypherpunks  and their goal to prove that an “observed life” is not a “free life.” I think that was a huge part of this documentary to show that there really is no privacy when it comes to life online. 

The purpose of this film was to inform. I think it wanted to cover as many bases as it could using the case of Ross Ulbricht to get attention. At least 15 minutes of this film focused on the cypherpunks and what they are about. That to me shows that it is important information they wanted the viewers to know. The cypherpunks came about in the 80’s and today there are more now than ever. I think the audience was informed of the fact that once the FBI got Ulbricht into custody they decided it was over. They had won. Then there is the talk of TOR which is the base of the dark web and that it is not always used for bad. Like I said briefly before, journalist are some of the few who use it for good. Then there is bitcoin which is what offers transactions to be anonymous on the dark web. TOR and bitcoin are what made The Silk Road very successful.

This was one of the most riveting digital crimes of its time. The film was very credible in the information given and the way it followed the case. The director himself is credible, Joe DeSalvo. I think even the choice of narrator, Keanu Reeves, was an ethos move to gain attention for this documentary.

The deep web is the online black market and Silk Road was one of many websites that were part of it, with many still being out there. They will never be able to fully take down the dark web because it is simply not possible. One website goes down and three more pop up. Honestly, I find it crazy how easy it is to access so many things online. The argument of this film, which I think could be a couple of things, one being that “an observed life is not a free life” was definitely effective and showed that the dark net is not only used for bad things. They had examples of how the government gained control, like how did they find the servers to gain access to The Silk Road in the first place? We will never find out because the trial ended abruptly making it the trial that never happened.  The defense had a stack of a few thousand pages telling them what they couldn’t use dismissing their argument that Ulbricht was not guilty. I think the film comes down to one last question, did we really know the truth of this case or just what they wanted us to know?