Power/freedom on the dark web: A digital ethnography of the Dark Web Social Network

Gehl, Robert W.

doi:10.1177/1461444814554900

Cited by 130 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In fact, some dark web activity helps expand civil liberties, challenging an institutionalized, governmental, or otherwise rigid notion of "legitimacy" [11]. The dark web often serves as the most secure channel for free speech, offering space for journalists, whistleblowers, and political dissidents who challenge repressive regimes [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Sharing Network in a Community of Illicit Practice: A Cybermarket Subreddit Case

Kwon¹,

Yu²,

Kilar³

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Often neglected in the literature about communities of practice is the fact that online knowledge-sharing communities thrive among illicit collectives whose activities are stigmatized or outlawed. This paper focuses on a knowledge-sharing community of users who engage in illegal practices by examining the ways in which the community's network structure changes when a high-stakes, uncertain event-the July 2017 shutdown of the dark web market Alphabay-occurs. This study compares the discussion network structures in the subreddit r/AlphaBay during pre-shutdown days (the "routine" period) and shutdown days (the "market defect" period) and offers a content analysis of the knowledge and resources shared by users during these periods. Several differences were observed: (a) the network structure changed such that the network size grew while becoming more centralized; (b) new crisis-specific players emerged; (c) types of knowledge shared during the market defect period was qualitatively different from the routine period.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge Sharing Network in a Community of Illicit Practice: A Cybermarket Subreddit Case

Kwon¹,

Yu²,

Kilar³

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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“…With working life increasingly an individual, digitized pursuit people seek out communitas on virtual platforms i.e. social media, which in some cases may be of a less benevolent nature and design (Gehl 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shades of Communitas: A Study of Soft Skills Programs

Fixsen

Ridge

2018

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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In societies where neoliberal individualism prevails, communal experiences nevertheless remain crucial to human life. Drawing on data from a series of soft skills programs (SSPs) for Higher Education (HE) staff, we investigated SSP social worlds, their role in navigating staff in uncertain times and points of resistance within them.We found SSPs to be distinctly performative platforms, engaging actors in various self-care and entrepreneurial activities. A complex network of relationships was established via SSPs, and group effects akin to communitas, in "lighter" and "darker" forms. Incongruities of SSPs included gender imbalances and emotional management issues, while a mismatch between managerial attempts to create positive communitas and the reality of mounting workloads and job-cuts facing HE staff were noted in this study. SSPs may help counter organizational siloism, but reflect the ambiguities within neoliberal culture and can deter staff from pursuing political modes of collective expression in the workplace.

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“…forums, with the rest via e-mail interviews. Similar approaches were used by Gehl (2018) in his covert digital ethnography that studied the dark web. In all of these cases, we see the approaches making use of what Ebo (1998: 3) terms 'cyberstealth' -a way of covertly reading web blogs and/or taking on anonymous web 'avatars' in chat rooms or forums.…”

Section: Covert Digital Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 94%

Observing Participants: Digital Ethnography in Online Dating Environments and the Cultivation of Online Research Identities

Esquinas¹,

Verdugo²,

Suárez³

et al. 2019

JEA

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This article offers a critical methodological reflection on how we undertook covert digital ethnographic research on Spanish young people and their use of online dating apps with a focus on the potential risk attached to using them. We were interested in showing how we approached the fieldwork, how we developed different research identities and how those identities were able to draw out raw data which reflected the risk attached to the online dating apps. While the project as a whole used a mixedmethods framework which also encompassed open-ended interviews and surveys, we provide a series of critical reflections attuned to digital ethnography. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to show how the methodological techniques cultivated 'identities' for our ethnographer that became effective in teasing out attitudes to risk and sexual exploration. We also hope that the paper can facilitate similar studies in the future, thus paving the way for other researchers. For this reason, we highlight the problems we encountered during the fieldwork and discuss the ethical issues related to this specific field.'Fieldwork is an exercise of multiple roles [...] it is in some ways a masquerade' (Velasco and de Rada 2006) This article offers a critical methodological reflection into how we undertook covert digital ethnographic research on Spanish young people and their use of online dating apps with a focus on the potential risk attached to using them. We are interested in showing how we approached the fieldwork, how we developed different research identities and how those identities were able to draw out raw data which reflected the risk attached to the online dating apps. We chose six dating apps commonly used by young people in Spain and undertook the study over the course of 12 months in 2018. Ethnographic studies on online dating apps are almost non-existent. Recent monographs focus instead on the role of the internet in dating (Daniels, Gregory and McMillan Cottom 2016; Smith and Duggan 2013), on men, masculinity and contemporary dating (Haywood 2018; Ryan 2016). In a similar vein, journal article authors tend to use theoretical approaches and/or quantitative surveys that focus on gender and identity (Clemens, Atkin and Krishnan 2015), online dating behavior

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Power/freedom on the dark web: A digital ethnography of the Dark Web Social Network

Cited by 130 publications

References 16 publications

Knowledge Sharing Network in a Community of Illicit Practice: A Cybermarket Subreddit Case

Knowledge Sharing Network in a Community of Illicit Practice: A Cybermarket Subreddit Case

Shades of Communitas: A Study of Soft Skills Programs

Observing Participants: Digital Ethnography in Online Dating Environments and the Cultivation of Online Research Identities

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