From Gray to Black Markets – A Quasi-Experimental Study on Algorithmically Driven Digital Drift Opportunities on Social Media
From Gray to Black Markets – A Quasi-Experimental Study on Algorithmically Driven Digital Drift Opportunities on Social Media
Kristoffer Aagesen Jakob Demant Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkKristoffer Aagesen is a PhD fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on online deviance and black markets for drugs and other criminal activity. Working both in online and offline spaces he studies the intersection of digital technology with offline sociality and offender behavior in hybrid digital crime. Aagesen has developed innovative methods in digital sociology aiming to audit algorithms and the affordances they inspire. Within this Aagesen has pioneered use of android and iPhone devices in the research in order to imitate real user experiences and provide best ecological validity in his studies. This is achieved through structured ethnography in hard-to-reach fields and bot-based interventions into criminal activity on social media.Jakob Demant, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. His research examines online and digital deviance through the lenses of criminology and microsociology. He has extensive expertise in digital methods, including the development of the qualitative research tool Manuscrape.org for digital ethnography and innovative protocols for studying digital deviance and encrypted crimes on social media and darknet markets. Demant has published more than 60 journal articles on crime, alcohol, drugs, and darknet markets in outlets such as Theoretical Criminology, Symbolic Interaction, Deviant Behavior, and the British Journal of Criminology. He also leads the Microsociology of Online Deviance (MOD) Lab, which conducts ethnographic research and interviews with hard-to-reach participants in illicit and deviant environments both online and offline.