Graph Theoretic Properties of the Darkweb

Abstract

We collect and analyze the darkweb (a.k.a. the "onionweb") hyperlink graph. We find properties highly dissimilar to the well-studied world wide web hyperlink graph; for example, our analysis finds that >87% of darkweb sites never link to another site. We compare our results to prior work on world-wide-web and speculate about reasons for their differences. We conclude that in the term "darkweb", the word "web" is a connectivity misnomer. Instead, it is more accurate to view the darkweb as a set of largely isolated dark silos.