Evolving in the Shadows: A Media Ecology Study of Dark Web Social Networks

Abstract

This study conceptualizes dark web social networks (DWSNs) through the lens of media ecology theory. We synthesize existing literature to problematize a lack of understanding of DWSNs as a communicatively organizing system. The discussion then focuses on how DWSNs complement, compete, and hybridize with surface web social networks (SWSNs). This Interaction shapes DWSNs as communities of practice that both serve and evolve with the communicative and informational needs of their users. We introduce and elaborate two media-ecological concepts of DWSNs: (1) a medium that has become a message of antithesis to Web 2.0 and (2) an organism that has coevolved with SWSNs. An empirical indicator to explicate these two concepts is The Hub, one of the long-lasting DWSNs. The Hub serves as an example to juxtapose DWSNs with SWSNs, with a focus on their intermedia relationship, and characterize the symbiosis between DWSNs as hosts and their users as living organisms.