Feds seize DeepDotWeb for taking money from black market sites

The FBI appears to have taken down DeepDotWeb, a site that publicized links to online black markets on the dark web.

DeepDotWeb was a popular resource to find underground websites, which can often only be visited via the Tor browser. The site itself also indexed the top black market platforms. But on Tuesday, DeepDotWeb's main page was replaced with a notice claiming the FBI had seized the site.

So far, the FBI hasn't commented on the takedown. But police in Israel told local media they arrested two individuals as part of a global operation to nab the administrators of DeepDotWeb.

It's not illegal to post a link to a black market site, even though they deal in goods such as drugs, stolen data, and child pornography. However, DeepDotWeb may have done more than simply function as a resource to help visitors navigate the dark web. Allegedly, the owners received bitcoin from black market sites in exchange for publishing links to them. According to Israeli police, the owners of DeepDotWeb had been raking in millions through their "affiliate marketing" business.

Police have also arrested several other suspects based in France, Germany, Holland and Brazil for their role in running the site, according to The Jerusalem Post.

DeepDotWeb did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The shutdown occurs days after authorities seized the Wall Street Market, one of the biggest online black markets on the dark web, and arrested three people suspected of running it. The site had 1.15 million customer accounts and featured thousands of sellers offering illegal goods.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.