This study examines the dark information commons in Reddit, a pseudonymous social news site, in the context of illicit e-commerce communities. Unlike market forums that are hosted in the dark web, Reddit is open to users of both the clear and dark web, unwittingly serving as a gateway for potential newcomers to learn and prepare their entrance into darknet market systems. To illustrate how information commons in Reddit bolster the resilience of illicit e-commerce communication ecology, this study presents information and knowledge flows in a subreddit community dedicated to a now-defunct market called AlphaBay. This study expands the discussion of the challenges that Reddit, as information commons, encounters in governing the flow of dark knowledge.
AmbrosiniV.BowmanC. (2001). Tacit knowledge: Some suggestions for operationalization. Journal of Management Studies, 38(6), 811-829. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00260
2.
ChughR. (2015). Do Australian universities encourage tacit knowledge transfer? In Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on knowledge discovery, knowledge engineering and knowledge management (pp. 128-135). SCITE Press.
3.
ColemanG. (2014). Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy: The many faces of anonymous. Verso books.
CollinsH. M. (2007). Bicycling on the moon: Collective tacit knowledge and somatic-limit tacit knowledge. Organization Studies, 28(2), 257-262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606073759
6.
DavidD. P.KeuppM. M.MermoudA. (2020). Knowledge absorption for cyber-security: The role of human beliefs. Computers in Human Behavior, 106, Article 106255.
7.
FarajS.ShimizuT. (2018). Online communities and knowledge collaborations. In AldagR. J. (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of business and management (pp. 1-20). Oxford University Press.
8.
FarajS.von KroghG.MonteiroE.LakhaniK. R. (2016). Special section introduction: Online community as space for knowledge flows. Information Systems Research, 27(4), 668-684. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2016.0682
9.
GehlR. W. (2018). Weaving the dark web: Legitimacy on freenet, Tor, and I2P. MIT Press.
Haldin-HerrgardT. (2000). Difficulties in diffusion of tacit knowledge in organizations. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1(4), 357-365. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930010359252
13.
HardinG.1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons,”Science, 162(3859), 1243-1248.
InschG. S.McIntyreN.DawleyD. (2008). Tacit knowledge: A refinement and empirical test of the academic tacit knowledge scale. Journal of Psychology, 142(6), 561-580. https://doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.142.6.561-580
16.
KilgoD. K.NgY. M. M.RiedlM. J.Lacasa-MasI. (2018). Reddit’s veil of anonymity: Predictors of engagement and participation in media environments with hostile reputations. Social Media+ Society, 4(4), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118810216
17.
KwonK. H.PriniskiJ. H.SarkarS.ShakarianJ.ShakarianP. (2017, July). Crisis and collective problem solving in dark web: An exploration of a black hat forum. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Social Media and Society (pp. 1-5). Association for Computing Machinery.
18.
KwonK. H.ShakarianJ. (2018). Black-hat hackers’ crisis information processing in the darknet: A case study of cyber underground market shutdowns. In Networks, hacking and media-CITAMS@30: Now and then and tomorrow (pp. 113-135). Emerald Publishers.
19.
KwonK. H.ShaoC. (2020, July22). Communicative constitution of illicit online trade collectives: An exploration of darkweb market subreddits. In Proceedings of the 2020 International Conference on Social Media and Society (pp. 65-72). Association for Computing Machinery.
20.
LeonardN.InschG. S. (2005). Tacit knowledge in academia: A proposed model and measurement scale. Journal of Psychology, 139(6), 495-512. https://doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.139.6.495-512
MassanariA. (2017). # Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures. New Media & Society, 19(3), 329-346. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815608807
23.
MatthewC. T.SternbergR. J. (2009). Developing experience-based (tacit) knowledge through reflection. Learning and Individual Differences, 19(4), 530-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2009.07.001
24.
MatiasJ. N. (2016, May). Going dark: Social factors in collective action against platform operators in the Reddit blackout. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1138-1151).
25.
MindelV.MathiassenL.RaiA. (2018). The sustainability of polycentric information commons. MIS Quarterly, 42(2), 607-632. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2018/14015
26.
MoellerK.MunksgaardR.DemantJ. (2017). Flow my FE the vendor said: Exploring violent and fraudulent resource exchanges on cryptomarkets for illicit drugs. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(11), 1427-1450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764217734269
27.
NazimM.MukherjeeB. (2016). Knowledge management in libraries: Concepts, tools and approaches. Chandos Publishers.
28.
NonakaI. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14-37. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14
29.
NonakaI.TakeuchiH. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press.
30.
NonakaI.Von KroghG. (2009). Perspective—Tacit knowledge and knowledge conversion: Controversy and advancement in organizational knowledge creation theory. Organization Science, 20(3), 635-652. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0412
31.
OhO.AgrawalM.RaoH. R. (2013). Community intelligence and social media services: A rumor theoretic analysis of tweets during social crises. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 407-426. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2013/37.2.05
32.
OstromE. (1990). Governing the commons. Cambridge University Press.
33.
PanahiS.WatsonJ.PartridgeH. (2013). Towards tacit knowledge sharing over social web tools. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(3), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-11-2012-0364
34.
PhillipsW. (2015). This is why we can’t have nice things: Mapping the relationship between online trolling and mainstream culture. MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10288.001.0001
TaylorH. (2007). Tacit knowledge: Conceptualizations and operationalizations. International Journal of Knowledge Management, 3(3), 60-73. https://doi.org/10.4018/jkm.2007070104
40.
TaylorJ. R.RobichaudD. (2004). Finding the organization in the communication: Discourse as action and sensemaking. Organization, 11(3), 395-413. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508404041999
41.
TriggsA. H.MøllerK.NeumayerC. (2019). Context collapse and anonymity among queer Reddit users. New Media & Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819890353
42.
WhyteG.ClassenS. (2012). Using storytelling to elicit tacit knowledge from SMEs. Journal of Knowledge Management, 16(6), 950-962. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673271211276218
