[Air-L] dark web recruitment

[Joshua Treadway]

If interested I can give your email to an associate that claims to venture
into the dark web (I'm being careful about my wording as I have not
verified their activity myself and am skeptical of anyone making such
claims). Recalling from similar research involving drug dealers, the
researcher started with one key informant that made introductions to other
informants after vetting the researcher. You may have to do the same. A
couple cautionary notes, at one point when the informant felt jilted
because the researcher couldn't get anymore useful information out of them
and moved the research away from him as a focus, he robbed the researcher
at gun point. As suggested by Katherine Lo, you may face reprisals for
transgressions you aren't even aware of even with the best of intentions or
simple maliciousness. Second, the researcher had to take great care to
protect his data from law enforcement, only being able to protect it
because it was under the domain of a federal grant.

Joshua B. Treadway





On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Alex Lambert <alex.lambert at monash.edu>
wrote:

> Dear AOIR colleagues
>
> I am interested in researching the marginalised or elicit intimacies that
> form on the Dark Web. I want to begin with some small scale pilot research
> to orient the focus of the study, using a small group of interview
> participants. However, as a new-initiate of the Dark Web I am at a total
> loss as to how to recruit people. I was considering performing online
> interviews via known affiliate forums such as 8-Chan. However I am
> concerned that this will just solicit trolling.
>
> Does anyone have any experience in this area? Your help would be much
> appreciated.
>
> All the best
> Alex
>
> ----------------------------------
> Dr Alex Lambert
> Lecturer, Department of Communication and Media Studies
> Monash University
> School of Media, Film and Journalism
> E: alex.lambert at monash.edu <mailto:alex.lambert at monash.edu>
> P: 0421871933
> Rm B4.24 Monash Caulfield
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