The dark web doesn't give online anonymity a bad name.

Charlatans use the dark web to advance their goal of branding anonymity as bad.

Clickbait hot take bloggers, "journalists" who should know better, and other useful idiots are all more than willing to assassinate character and tear down something they don't care about if it confers a benefit to themselves (attention, status, ad impressions, etc...).

Those are the bigger problem. Not the "dark web."

It's nice that this author is making the principled case for anonymity. But that should be secondary to showing people the bigger picture, and how to "smell out" when they're being mislead for someone's myopic goals.