But one new study shows that even before that dubious link between online anonymity and terror attacks, global opinion on the dark web was already overwhelmingly negative.

On Tuesday, the Canadian think tank the Center for International Governance Innovation released the results of a survey of more than 24,000 individuals in 24 countries, asking their opinion of the dark web—the collection of anonymous web sites that can only be accessed via tools like the anonymity software Tor. In total, 71 percent of the respondents—and 72 percent of Americans in particular—said they believed the "dark net" should be shut down. "The basic perception is that it's not a good thing," says Eric Jardine, a CIGI fellow who specializes in research on the dark web and Tor. "For your average Joe or Jane, the dark web is not perceived as a very useful technology, and in fact it's seen as harmful."