The politics behind the Silk Road shutdown and Ross Ulbricht's arrest

[awesome31312]

There are thousands of transactions carried out on the entire Dark Net on a daily basis. Most of these markets will either fall victim to hackers, covert law enforcement operations, or greed in the form of exit scams. Hackers generally prey on the markets long before law enforcement can get their hands on them. However, there are a few markets that would survive the test of time, expanding their sites, adding security features, and growing to bring in annual profits of over $100m. Such markets do not go unnoticed by law enforcement, or even the press. We all remember the shutdown of Silk Road, then Silk Road 2.0. Now we have several other markets in its place, the most prominent one at the moment being AlphaBay. So, why does the government specifically choose to go after Silk Road, when there are all these other markets out there?

To get a better understanding of the answer to that question, we must look at it from a clearnet perspective. There are currently hundreds of mass torrent sharing sites that infringe on copyrighted material. However, it is only one site, ThePirateBay, which stands out to law enforcement, and is subject to shutdowns, raids, and investigations. You see, ThePirateBay has been involved in activism for Aaron Swartz, and against SOPA/other controversial legislation under the US administration. This one website stood out in particular because it had an agenda. They told all these rich, greedy corporations to literally screw themselves (on their "Letters" page).

Ross Ulbricht (AKA DPR) had a very unjust trial. The judge was very dismissive, and had a clear cut bias against DPR, viewing him not as a hero of living in modern times but as a dangerous terrorist. The federal government does not have the time and resources to go after everybody involved in trading on the network, so they specifically go after the loud ones, the ones with a voice, the activists, the guys who will receive press coverage. As a "beware, we're coming for you, be intimidated" message.

I have been stopped and profiled by law enforcement on many occasions. Every single time, they want me to unlock my electronics so they can access the files in it. They do this only because I have been flagged and put on several watchlists for my TOR usage and investigative journalism against PRISM.

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[bryant.coleman]

Silk Road was like the first major dark market. The others were mostly copycats of Silk Road. And that is the real reason why Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road were targeted by the FBI. It was all well planned. The FBI rigged the evidence, and charged him with fake murder attempt charges. Also, the judge who sentenced him (Katherine Forrest) is a well known associate of the wall street criminals.

[awesome31312]

Silk Road was like the first major dark market. The others were mostly copycats of Silk Road. And that is the real reason why Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road were targeted by the FBI. It was all well planned. The FBI rigged the evidence, and charged him with fake murder attempt charges. Also, the judge who sentenced him (Katherine Forrest) is a well known associate of the wall street criminals.

Very true. Hiring a hitman was never ever on DPR's agenda. The murder charges were obviously fabricated. It's very obvious that they wanted a rigged jury as well, by the way the trial was handled, they wanted his trial to take place in another state, that move is often associated with douchefuckery.

[European Central Bank]

in all areas of the life the first and the biggest always get taken down with extreme prejudice. that's how the world works and that's how authorities think. silk road was the first and biggest. the piratebay is by far the most famous.

ross was never gonna be anything other than totally buried and if it had been someone else they'd have been treated exactly the same.

[awesome31312]

ross was never gonna be anything other than totally buried and if it had been someone else they'd have been treated exactly the same.

Probably not *exactly* the same, I'm sure DPR's activism really led to his harsher sentence, he got life in prison for harming nobody!

[European Central Bank]

Probably not *exactly* the same, I'm sure DPR's activism really led to his harsher sentence, he got life in prison for harming nobody!

I don't think his college idealism was causing the government to quake in their boots. here was a guy selling drugs almost beyond their reach. that's all they care about and that's why whoever it was gonna be had to made an example of.

[awesome31312]

Probably not *exactly* the same, I'm sure DPR's activism really led to his harsher sentence, he got life in prison for harming nobody!

I don't think his college idealism was causing the government to quake in their boots. here was a guy selling drugs almost beyond their reach. that's all they care about and that's why whoever it was gonna be had to made an example of.

While I agree that they wanted to make an example out of him, it was a lot more than "college idealism". The judge considered his ideas to be "dangerous", as did many other government officials related to his case.