ABSTRACT

Using Reddit as a case study, this article blurs the boundary between the ‘dark’ and ‘clear’ web, arguing that in between these spaces there is what I describe as a ‘brackish web’, inhabited by ‘brackish social spaces’. Reddit, I argue, sits in a murky space between the dark and clear, with its technological rationality, politics, and technological affordances exhibiting elements of both the clear and dark infrastructures. I study these similarities through examining Reddit’s relationship to surveillance, arguing that it exhibits similarities to the dark web through a politics of anonymity and its practices of content moderation. Reddit, however, has slowly moved away from some of its ‘dark’ elements, in particular through a growing reliance on advertising revenue. This has pushed the platform to engage in more surveillance of its users, pushing it away from its dark web politics. This article challenges the dark and clear web binary, further nuancing our understandings of the politics, economics and technological rationality that underpins online digital platforms.

摘要

使用 Reddit 作为案例研究，本文模糊了“黑暗”和“清晰”网络之间的界限，认为在这些空间之间存在我所描述的“微咸网络”，其中居住着“微咸社交空间”。我认为，Reddit 位于黑暗和清晰之间的一个模糊空间，其技术理性、政治和技术可供性展示了清晰和黑暗基础设施的元素。我通过检查 Reddit 与监视的关系来研究这些相似之处，认为它通过匿名政治及其内容审核实践表现出与暗网的相似之处。然而，Reddit 已经慢慢摆脱了它的一些“黑暗”元素，特别是通过越来越依赖广告收入。这促使该平台对其用户进行更多监视，将其推离暗网政治。本文挑战了黑暗而清晰的网络二进制文件，进一步加深了我们对支撑在线数字平台的政治、经济和技术合理性的理解。