1. Twister: @robertwgehl
Is the Dark Web Legit?
Robert W. Gehl
University of Utah

2. Plan of the Presentation
What is the Dark Web?
Three Legitimacies
State violence
Appropriate
Authentic, real, cool
Three Legits and the DW
Symbolic/Material Economy of Legitimacy

3. What is the "Dark Web"? Standard Web technologies
HTML, HTTP, CSS, PHP, Javascript
Web browser
Special routing software
Encryption
Obfuscation of publisher IP address/identity
Obfuscation of browser's IP/identity

4. What is the "Dark Web"?

5. Three Legitimacies Legitimate(d) use of violent force
Appropriate, proper, law-abiding, respectable
Authenticity, realness

6. Legitimate(d) use of violent force
Weber: States are defined by one particular means to their ends: the monopoly on the use of violence.
Not just the use of violence, however; the constructed belief in the state's exclusive right to said violence.
The literature in political philosophy that explains why or why not a population ought to consent to its government.
In other words, legitimated violence
"Politics as a vocation"

7. Legitimate(d) use of violent force
Object: the citizen-subject
Power practices: Deprivation of time (imprisonment) or life (death penalty, military death [ie., drone-killing], police killing)
Social groups: Law enforcement, military, security state, politicians
Weber: States are defined by one particular means to their ends: the monopoly on the use of violence.
Not just the use of violence, however; the constructed belief in the state's exclusive right to said violence.
The literature in political philosophy that explains why or why not a population ought to consent to its government.
In other words, legitimated violence
"Politics as a vocation"

8. Appropriate, proper, law-abiding
Mark Suchman: "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions."
"He argues that "legitimacy is a perception or assumption in that it represents a reaction of observers to the organization as they see it; thus, legitimacy is possessed objectively, yet created subjectively."
He represents fields like managerial studies and organizational communication which seek to explain how organizations (often corporations) can develop legitimacy as a resource.

9. Appropriate, proper, law-abiding
Objects: employees, investors, consumers
Power practices: Deprivation of livelihood, money, access (firing, suing), discipline
Social groups: Management, moderators, administrators
Mark Suchman: "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions."
"He argues that "legitimacy is a perception or assumption in that it represents a reaction of observers to the organization as they see it; thus, legitimacy is possessed objectively, yet created subjectively."
He represents fields like managerial studies and organizational communication which seek to explain how organizations (often corporations) can develop legitimacy as a resource.
Accounting scholar Matthew Tilling argues for a distinction between institutional legitimacy (i.e., level of the state) and organizational (i.e., firms and corporations)

10. Authenticity, realness
Bourdieu describes artists, who are not beholden to those older forms of external legitimation (state, or church) and instead establish criteria by which they can decide who's in and who's out; that is, who is authentic, who is not. This is what Bourdieu calls "art as art." This is legitimacy as authenticity: "the affirmation of a truly artistic legitimacy, i.e. the right of artists to legislate within their own sphere—that of form and style—free from subordination to religious or political interests."

11. Authenticity, realness
We see this readily in popular music: who is legit, who is not? Who is authentic, and who is a sell-out?

12. Authenticity, realness
Objects: artists, intellectuals, hackers, critics
Power practices: inclusion and exclusion, distinction and differentiation, criticism
Social groups: artists, intellectuals, hackers, critics
As can be seen by my arguing the object and the social groups are mapping onto one another, this is a very insular type of legitimation.

13. Three Legitimacies
Why even use the term "legitimacy" in relation to the Dark Web?
Because social groups associated with the Dark Web use the term (i.e., it is emic knowledge)
Dark Web social groups:
Law enforcement and governments
Network builders (Tor project, i2p, etc)
Site administrators
DW users

14. Three Legitimacies
Legitimate(d) use of force (1/2)
Law enforcement, op-ed writers
Arrest makers of illegitimate sites
Seize servers, monitor users
In this sense, legitimacy in the negative: the Dark Web is illegitimate
State desire to monitor citizen-subjects, prohibit actions, imprison offenders, raid and seize homes and property
Dark Web's anonymizing capacities can limit this
Press releases from agencies touting their capacity to de-anonymize and arrest

15. Three Legitimacies Legitimate(d) use of force (2/2)
Free speech activists
Dark Web as free speech-preserving bulwark against state power
A means to contest the legitimation of state force
In this sense, Dark Web is legitimate even in the face of illegal activities conducted on it

16. Three Legitimacies Appropriate, legal sense (1/2)
Tor user and site admin:
In the time I've been using the DarkWeb, I've seen a great number of sites come and go. Primarily, it's been the illegal sites that have been the shortest lived, but many legitimate sites have been established out here as well, just to pull up stakes within a year or less due to whatever reason.

17. Three Legitimacies Appropriate, legal sense (2/2)
Another Tor user and site admin:
"Hosting and promoting legit services on Tor that doesn’t deal with all the stuff that makes good press and people think badly about such a system is a win in my book. If people would just realize that Tor is meant for all this great and empowering things, and not be afraid of all the 'darkness' that the 'dark net' is connected to, the entire world society would be better off, both online and offline."

18. Three Legitimacies Authentic, real (1/2) Many, many DW users:
"Is THIS SITE legit?"
Is it a scam? Is it a law enforcement honeypot?
Can I get my drugs or guns?
Can I get real hacking advice?

19. Three Legitimacies Authentic, real (2/2) Tor hidden service admin
Challenges of "trying to keep bots out while allowing legitimate users in, meanwhile doing so in a way that doesn't compromise the user's anonymity"
Who are "real" users?

20. Three Legitimacies
State Power
Appropriate
Orgs, Technologies
Authentic
Practices
Very often in terms of the DW, the "Appropriate" sphere mediates between state power and the "legit" sphere.

21. Well? Is the Dark Web legit? Impossible to say just now
Could be illegitimate (state power)
Could be legitimated (as an accepted technology)
Could be legit (drug markets)
Undergoing its legitimacy trial
We see a symbolic/cultural/material economy of legitimacy
I will focus on Dark Web Search, Markets, and Social Networking Sites

22. Twister: @robertwgehl
Is the Dark Web Legit?
Robert W. Gehl
University of Utah