

Organized Crime: The World's Largest Social Network  - yarapavan
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/01/ff_orgchart_crime/

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Semiapies
Except, of course, "legitimate trade" is roughly as much a "social network" -
and would be far larger.

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michaelchisari
I think underground economic organizations have a social cohesion that
legitimate trade lacks, though. There's a reason that terms like "cosa nostra"
("our thing") are used, and why so many gangs inspire a fierce, blood
relative-like loyalty, whereas you'd be hard-pressed to find that kind of
strong social bonding in above ground organizations.

Except, maybe Apple.

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firemanx
I disagree - if you head out to any small or medium sized "town" (my own, for
example), you'll see the same kind of social bonding, loyalties, and cohesion
amongst the people at organizations and even between organizations themselves.

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michaelchisari
How organized crime solves the social networking privacy dilemma:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omerta>

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Swizec
Coincidentally, this is also the code of honor at school/kindergarten.

I wonder what the explanation could be behind this notion of opposing
authority to help your peers even when it is costly to you in the short term.
Does a game theory explanation exist?

From what I've read most nations occupied by an enemy force develop a similar
code of honor in regards to the aggressor.

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michaelchisari
Yeah, it exists in a lot of different sectors of society. Police have the
"blue wall of silence", animal liberationists have "security culture",
Baltimore gang members have "stop snitching", Marxists have "revolutionary
discipline", it goes on and on.

I think if anything, the game theory response is determined by a distrust of
the impartiality of authority. The Boondocks actually had a really good
dissection about why "Stop Snitching" caught on.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUwvAqLvivU> (NSFW, Language)

Specifically, 1m 45s in. It also doesn't touch on that often talking to the
police can be used by the police as pretext to crack down on unrelated crimes.
So when you think you're doing good, next thing you know, your cousin is
getting arrested for having a small amount of weed in their room.

I think any social organization that has something to worry about when it
comes to loose lips learns very quickly that you either learn to keep your
mouth shut and value your social relationships well, or your social
organization ceases to exist.

In a way, social networking puts us all in that kind of situation. Many of us
do illegal, socially unaccepted, or consequential things, although what we do
may not be morally objectionable at all. We haven't learned yet what the
criminal organizations have, which is to a) keep your mouth shut, and b)
choose your friends wisely.

Instead, people tend to look towards technical solutions like cryptography.

