Extremist Networks, Narcotics and Criminality in Online Darknet Environments

ENNCODE (2020-2022) is an Academy of Finland funded consortium (329342-5), which consists of four interconnected projects. Together, they develop and use machine learning to study extremist networks and the online sales of narcotics. The project’s foci are discussion sites in the so-called ‘Dark Web’, a part of the Internet interaction with which requires specialized software. The Dark Web is known especially for criminal activities, but also contains things such as support groups, discussions between whistleblowers and journalists, and sites used by democracy activists. Discussions on the Dark Web also often connect with certain forums on the indexed ‘Clear’ Web.

The ENNCODE consortium has partners from Tampere University and The National Defence University. The consortium is lead by Associate Professor J. Tuomas Harviainen at Tampere University.