Beyond common misconceptions: new research sheds light on the Darknet

By emma [dot] lord [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (Emma Lord) - published 10 April 2026

Tove Westberg in front of the School of Social Work in Lund. Photo: Emma Lord. — Tove Westberg in front of the School of Social Work in Lund, where the thesis defence took place today. Photo: Emma Lord.

The Darknet is often described as criminal, lawless and in need of external control. New research by sociologist Tove Westberg, however, shows that cryptoforums on the Darknet function as complex social communities, shaped by norms, trust and informal social control.

Today, Friday 10 April 2026, Tove Westberg marks the successful defence of her doctoral thesis in sociology at Lund University. The public defence took place at the School of Social Work, where a full lecture hall gathered for the defence.

In her doctoral thesis The Paradoxical Darknet: An Ethnographic Study of Community and Social Control on Cryptoforums, Tove Westberg explores how participants in Darknet cryptoforums create meaning, order and trust in a digital environment frequently described as lawless and deviant. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork – combined with digital observations and 19 interviews with administrators, moderators and regular members – the study offers rare insight into a largely hidden online community.

The analysis is guided by an interactionist perspective and a theoretical framework centred on community, communities of practice, social capital and informal control. Particular attention is also paid to the role of humour and discipline in everyday interactions on the forums.

Trust, status and shared practices

The doctoral thesis shows that Darknet cryptoforums can be understood as imagined communities, where digital relationships, shared practices and common interests create cohesion. Authority does not stem from formal power, but from the trust and reputational status granted by peers over time.

A central feature of community life is a range of epistemic and harm reducing practices, such as OpSec – strategies for maintaining anonymity and digital safety. Members who share high quality OpSec advice are often rewarded with increased status and recognition, which in turn strengthens their credibility within the forum.

Cover of Tove Westberg’s doctoral thesis The Paradoxical Darknet.

About the doctoral thesis

Tove Westberg has written a sociological doctoral thesis on Darknet cryptoforums, based on long term ethnographic fieldwork, digital observations and interviews with forum participants. The doctoral thesis analyses how community, norms, status and informal control are formed in hidden digital environments.

Tove Westberg’s profile in Lund University’s research portal.

The doctoral thesis in Lund University’s research portal

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Assistant Professor Meropi Tzanetaki discussing with Tove Westberg by the podium table.. — External reviewer Assistant Professor Meropi Tzanetakis from the University of Manchester presented the doctoral thesis, highlighting issues of trust, reputation and public shaming explored in the thesis. Photo: Emma Lord.

Informal control and everyday “doubt labour”

The study also examines how rules are upheld through informal mechanisms. Shaming rituals, status symbols and processes of appeal play an important role in maintaining social order. The consequences of rule breaking are not determined solely by which rule has been violated, but emerge from a complex interplay between a member’s prior history on the forum, interpretations of the situation and those responsible for enforcing the rules.

A recurring theme is FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt – and how it is socially defined and managed. The thesis shows that trust and reputational capital ultimately shape whose claims are accepted and how FUD is identified and contained. This everyday “doubt labour” is crucial for maintaining communal trust, even as the open flow of information makes the community vulnerable to manipulation.

Challenging simplified views of the Darknet

Overall, the doctoral thesis demonstrates that Darknet cryptoforums should be understood as intricate social systems, characterised by digitally mediated forms of interaction and social control. The forums appear paradoxical – simultaneously decentralised and highly organised, both anarchistic and orderly.

In doing so, the research challenges simplified ways of understanding the Darknet, which tend to frame it either as an inherently illicit and deviant space or as a libertarian refuge devoted to freedom and privacy. Instead, a more nuanced reality emerges, where social order is created through shared practices, trust and ongoing negotiation.