Sputnik: How significant is this pledge and will it actually have much effect on policing the Darkweb?
Adrian Winckles: One of the problems policing the Darkweb is that it requires international cooperation. Because of the nature of where the server facilities reside, you’re going to need international partners and agreements.
If the money is going to be spent on policing resources in the UK and not on international collaborations or paying for offices involved in those collaborations that’s going to make a drop in the ocean or is not significant enough to make enough to make much of a difference in my opinion?
Sputnik: What sort of actions should we be seeing from the international community to help stop the dealing of illegal drugs, child pornography and weapons?
Adrian Winckles: It requires a collaboration of national bodies like the national crime agency in the UK and the FBI and equivalent agencies in developed and developing countries to crackdown on these activities and produce international police operations to be able to make those multiple enquiries to enforce those sorts of actions.
Sputnik: Time and time again we’ve seen government past and present from different parts of the world all pledge to help police and shutdown criminal activities on the Darkweb, however these words go no further. Is it realistic for governments to say ‘let’s police the Darkweb’ considering no other government has done it before?
Adrian Winckles: I think it’s a well-informed intention but it will need that cooperation for any chance of success because many of these illicit goods are being hosted in many different countries in jurisdictions that can’t be reached. It is a well-intended aim but whether it will work is a different matter.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of Adrian Winckles and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.