Cooperation Under Anonymity: Extralegal Governance and China’s Illegal Online Sexual Fiction Market

Abstract

How do illegal market participants secure cooperation in anonymous networks where neither interpersonal trust relationships nor state institutions are present? This article contributes to the study of cooperation under conditions of anonymity by focusing on China’s illegal online sexual fiction market. The article reveals that the market uses legitimate platforms, which provide user-friendly interfaces and core functions that allow market participants to identify exchange partners and do business with them. Online platforms’ core functions enable buyers to identify trustworthy author-sellers and deter opportunism, but these functions do not offer the same support to author-sellers. Author-sellers also develop self-governance institutions, such as gossip and appearance, to avoid attention from platform administrators, safeguard transactions, and ostracize dishonest and underage exchange partners.