Digital ethnography of the Polish darknet drug trade community

Organizers: European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Athena – Research and Education Institute at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam).
Conference: EASST-4S 2024 Amsterdam Conference, Amsterdam, July 16-19, 2024.
Paper: Digital ethnography of the Polish darknet drug trade community.

1. Digital ethnography of
the Polish darknet
drug trade community
Piotr Siuda
Kazimierz Wielki University
Bydgoszcz, Poland
EASST-4S
2024
Amsterdam
July 16-19, 2024

2. The
project
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The Team
“Rhizomatic networks, circulation of
meanings and contents, and offline
contexts of online drug trade.”
Researching online drug trade in various
contexts and using multiple methods.
Several research questions on two levels,
that is, empirical and methodological.
This project has received funding from the
Polish National Science Centre (OPUS 22).
Project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710.
8 people involved

3. The darknet
NCN project number
2021/43/B/HS6/00710
Cebulka started in 2013; in 2016, PGP keys to
encrypt logging and private messages and escrow
for transactions were introduced.
Architecturally, Cebulka is a message board that
hosts various threads.
As of March 26, 2024, Cebulka has 59,720
registered users.
Cebulka’s pages
http://cebulka7uxchnbpvmqapg5pfos4ngaxglsktzvha7a5rign
dghvadeyd.onion/index.php

4. Netnography
NCN project number
2021/43/B/HS6/00710
Cebulka is not only transaction-focused but also
plays a vital role in shaping the narratives and
discussions prevalent in the online drug subculture.
Stigmatized and a hard-to-reach community.
Digital ethnography as providing the best
opportunities to establish contact with the studied
population.
Cebulka’s logo
http://cebulka7uxchnbpvmqapg5pfos4ngaxglsktzvha7a5rign
dghvadeyd.onion/index.php

5. February 2023 to February 2024
STAGE TWOSTAGE ONE
A two-staged study
School of Social and Political Science IRB at the
University of Edinburg (approval ID: 288628); the
Faculty of Cultural Studies IRB at the Kazimierz
Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
STAGE ONE: Exploring threads and profiles; 16,842
posts that underwent textual, thematic, and visual
analysis; internal research team reports totaling 53,171
words.
EASST-4S 2024NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710

6. Stage two:
Interactions
(IDIs)
A recruitment thread vs. contacting the admin.
Demonstrating the interview questions and the
information sheet, including the consent forms.
Giving respondents many opportunities to choose
how the interview might look.
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2 users 2 users 2 users 2 users
EASST-4S 2024NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710
A particular procedure with only two
users, the admins have chosen with whom
interviews could occur at a given time.
Interviews could only be conducted using
Cebulka’s internal system of
asynchronous private messages.
Initial reaction was adverse and very
suspicious and turned into long-term
negotiations over the shape of the study.

7. Pros and
cons
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EASST-4S 2024NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710
Identifying with community
members.
Bolstering ethics but
significantly extending the time
needed to gather sufficient
interviews.
Less research validity and
reliability.
The admin made the decisions
arbitrarily (prominent and active
users were targeted).

8. Netnography should not only actively engage in
the community’s life but give that community
some control over the research. The idea is to
actively shape the entire process by members,
especially when this would mean enhancing
ethical integrity and facilitating access to
otherwise elusive communities.
The focus of this presentation was not on the meanings attributed to the discussion
and trading of drugs, but to explain the methodological aspects of the study.
EASST-4S 2024NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710

9. NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710
Problems and specificity of
netnography in a particular
crime-related environment
(numerous modifications to
standard procedures).
Concluding remarks
A new standard for approaching and researching stigmatized
and hard-to-reach communities.
The aim: to encourage researchers to use digital ethnography
in less controversial settings and evaluate the benefits and
drawbacks of their ethical and methodological choices.
Losing control may never be
complete, and one should
always be vigilant to ensure that
it does not harm research ethics
(e..g., the admin wanted access
to the responses of all users
interviewed).

10. Thanks!
EASST-4S 2024 NCN project number 2021/43/B/HS6/00710
[email protected]
X @piotr_siuda