Darknet Diaries · Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Nick Merill discusses his early belief that the internet was a powerful tool for making real change and connecting people with shared ideas. He contrasts the unregulated, low-barrier-to-entry internet with the tightly controlled, high-cost traditional media landscape of newspapers, television, and radio.
“And I remember thinking at the time, this is how you could make real change. This is how you could connect people all over the country and all over the world who have one thought or an idea or want to do something.”
“And so I remember thinking that it was it was a tightly controlled media environment and the the bar to entry was incredibly high.”
“And then here's the internet, which at that time had no regulation at all and the bar to entry was really low, like it was so low that, uh, when my grandfather died, I inherited like literally a few thousand dollars.”