Beyond the familiar online world that most of us inhabit - a world of Google, Hotmail, Facebook and Amazon - lies a vast and often hidden network of sites, communities and cultures where freedom is pushed to its limits, and where people can be anyone, or do anything, they want. A world that is as creative and complex as it is dangerous and disturbing. A world that is much closer than you think. The dark net is an underworld that stretches from popular social media sites to the most secretive corners of the encrypted web. It is a world that frequently appears in newspaper headlines, but one that is little understood, and rarely explored. The Dark Net is a revelatory examination of the internet today, and of its most innovative and dangerous subcultures- trolls and pornographers, drug dealers and hackers, political extremists and computer scientists, Bitcoin programmers and self-harmers, libertarians and vigilantes. Based on extensive first-hand experience, exclusive interviews and shocking documentary evidence, The Dark Net offers a startling glimpse of human nature under the conditions of freedom and anonymity, and shines a light on an enigmatic and ever-changing world.

Author Biography

Jamie Bartlett is the Head of the Violence and Extremism Programme and the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, where he has written extensively about radical political parties and movements and how the internet is changing society. Jamie holds Masters Degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford.