The dark web isn't the best place to be for most people.
Besides being not straightforward to access, requiring specialized browser, knowledge of digging in the URLs and implementing some security precautions, the deep web is best known as a place where hackers, scammers, drug dealers, researchers, government officials and some others gather.
Some malicious individuals who use the dark web don't care much about people's personal data and their well-being.
Acknowledging that an increasing number of people are demanding answers for the cure for COVID-19, illicit markets have attempted to benefit from the influx by selling false treatments for the disease.
However, an increasing number of them are apparently more humane when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some dark web drug marketplaces are actually quick in turning them down, by banning vendors trying to sell fake vaccines or cures for the coronavirus.
Dark web websites are those that live in the darkest corners of the web.
Not indexed by traditional search engines and cannot be accessed by traditional web browsers, they live in the isolated region of the web. With users of dark web benefit from their anonymity, many of them leveraged this privilege by doing what they can never do on the indexable surface web.
From selling narcotics, hacking tools, counterfeited goods, firearms to many other prohibited items. They can all be found on dark web marketplaces.
But when it comes to the surge of people selling potentially dangerous materials to unsuspecting buyers, some dark web markets aren't taking any chances. They too want to protect people from the disease.
Monopoly Market for example. The marketplace which lists drugs ranging from cannabis to steroids, said that it would permanently remove any members attempting to sell unproven medicines, saying that if "any vendor caught flogging goods as a ‘cure’ to coronavirus will not only be permanently removed from this market but should be avoided like the Spanish flu."
The site also forbids its users from selling items that have been impacted by shortages, such as protective face masks.
“You do not, under any circumstances use Covid-19 as a marketing tool,” the post stated. “No magical cures, no silly f***ing mask selling, toilet paper selling. None of that b*******. We have class here.”
It seems that the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked some benevolent reasoning in them.
Monopoly Market's policy towards the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen more than 1 million confirmed cases around the world, is not unique on the dark web.
And in fact, this isn't actually the first time that dark web marketplaces have taken a moral stance against dubious or harmful products.
In 2018 for example, major operators voluntarily stopped selling the synthetic opioid fentanyl after it was linked to hundreds of accidental overdoses.
Despite Monopoly Market and some others have taken steps to stop misleading people, some other popular dark web marketplaces still list fake coronavirus vaccines and cures.
These sellers don't care much about their buyers, and would rather do anything to make profit.
Most of products they sell that were either disproved or pose danger to anyone who takes it.
One vaccine being sold in the Agartha marketplace for example, was marketed as a "vaccine", but actually contained a mix of cocaine and nicotine.
Agartha also listed many chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, drugs touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
Scientists have warned that at this time, there is no proof of the antimalarial drug's effectiveness, and that it could be dangerous if they are not taken under a doctor’s supervision. As for the proper vaccine, researchers said that it would take about a year before they can finally create one.
With the coronavirus pandemic, the world is seeing two sides, and this includes those on the surface web and the dark web.
Some have developed the moral responsibility in this pandemic, but still there are others that continue plaguing the web for their own benefits.
Marketplaces are after all, businesses that need to operate for profit.
Many are afraid to risk their brand recognition and are afraid of getting infected, others simply want to thrive and don't want to lose money due to the sinking economy.
Further reading: How Hackers Piggyback Coronavirus Fears For Their Malicious Campaigns