Overview

Examines how the global digital underground is liberated by ""open secrecy""—a novel and ominous mix of tools for mass communication and anonymity Shadowy groups are increasingly capable of collective action. Using military-grade encryption, rerouting software, and cryptocurrencies, anonymous and pseudonymous actors can now communicate, solve problems, recruit members, and manage resources across multiple public and semipublic spaces. This swirling mix of secrecy and openness enables people to move through cyberspace like nomads with verifiable personas, which makes them impossible to stop. Isak Ladegaard takes readers inside a dark, digital economy for banned drugs that has survived numerous police crackdowns, examines how activist software developers in China and other countries have maintained paths to the open internet, and documents how the American far right uses the same tools to sustain antisocial movements based on paranoia and hate. Timely and perceptive, Open Secrecy argues that although information technology enables mass surveillance, it also undermines state power by boosting groups that evade its rule. These dual forces of control and liberation are propelling us forward, with no one at the wheel.

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9780520397286

Table of Contents

Reviews

""It would be a mistake to assume that Open Secrecy is simply another book about cybercrime, the dark internet, or even the possibilities of deviance in a digitized world. . . Open Secrecy is a work of political theory [and] it will continue to be read long after the fleeting relevance of its object of study."" * Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime * ""Ladegaard develops a thesis about the darker side of digitalization, something which is extensively documented, but sparsely theorized. . . . The work is timely and innovative. It is broad in scope, and I recommend it to all who wish to understand the disruptive potential of technology."" * Acta Sociologica *

""It would be a mistake to assume that Open Secrecy is simply another book about cybercrime, the dark internet, or even the possibilities of deviance in a digitized world. I do not know whether the author conceived it this way, but in my view, and I believe this is its greatest strength, and likely the reason it will continue to be read long after the fleeting relevance of its object of study, Open Secrecy is a work of political theory."" * Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime * ""Ladegaard develops a thesis about the darker side of digitalization, something which is extensively documented, but sparsely theorized. To connect disparate findings on the dark sides of digitalization, Ladegaard proposes the concept of open secrecy."" * Acta Sociologica *

Author Information

Isak Ladegaard is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong.

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