TBBT: r/darknetmarkets Ban Intervention (2018)

A Reddit (r/darknetmarkets ban intervention, 2018) dataset of 32,712 pre-ban posts from banned community, 119,036 pre-ban control posts, 16,348 post-ban control posts, collected by Cerulli et al. via Reddit API (ICWSM 2026). Each record contains comment ID, selftext (post body), author (pseudonymized), subreddit, score, created_utc, split label (in-before/out-before/out-after). TBBT r/darknetmarkets: pre- and post-ban Reddit dataset from The Big Ban Theory — standardized 3-month window around the 2018 moderation intervention with matched control communities. Suitable for content moderation effects, community migration, deplatforming research, pre/post intervention analysis, Reddit ban studies.

#Control group#Darknet market#Intervention study#Subreddit ban#The big bang theory

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Analytics

The interactive network needs JavaScript.

· graph.json

The full graph has 8,457 nodes; this view shows the 1,000-node sample the pipeline drew for display. Node size is centrality, colour is community.

8.5K
Nodes
16.2K
Edges
2.27e-04
Density
1
Components
-0.2633
Assortativity
0.0%
Reciprocity
6K
Bridges
Most central nodes
DarkNetMarkets0.108
Drugs0.02921
DarkNetMarketsNoobs0.02306
Xanaxcartel0.01727
AskReddit0.01715
DankNation0.0149
opiates0.01218
Bitcoin0.01053
researchchemicals0.01041
trees0.01041
Content metrics

168,096 records scored · min–maxmean ± 0.675 σ (the interquartile range if the values are roughly normal)mean

scoreμ 4.265 ± 44.98
min -124max 13.6K
is banned19.5% true
true 19.5%false 80.5%
is pre ban90.3% true
true 90.3%false 9.7%
is post ban9.7% true
true 9.7%false 90.3%
6.2
Flesch–Kincaid grade
US school grade level
6.4
Automated readability index
Frequent terms
likedonpeopleknowgoodtimeusevendorgotthinkshitmarketlolvendorsdreamwayrightpostgoingfuckordersuremoneyneedwantdrugsbtcsaidmonerodaysbuyfuckingnewyeahdaybitcoinprobablyfindaccountbetterwalletdoesndidnactuallysubdrugprettymanthinggetting
Topic clusters

Topic 0

monero
btc
bitcoin
wallet
fee
transaction
coin
use

Topic 1

vendor
market
scam
scamme
escrow
dream
order
scammer

Topic 2

pack
package
order
mail
day
usps
ship
tracking

Topic 3

fuck
shit
nigga
fucking
kid
sound
boop
gay

Topic 4

mdma
lsd
meth
test
like
acid
hcl
pill

Topic 5

good
time
day
think
month
ask
happen
long

Topic 6

fent
drug
heroin
fentanyl
coke
people
opiate
sell

Topic 7

sub
mod
post
reddit
ban
rule
shill
comment

Topic 8

pgp
vpn
tor
key
encrypt
use
server
attack

Topic 9

cop
state
police
charge
drug
officer
law
arrest

Topic 10

thank
appreciate
man
info
great
help
helpful
awesome

Topic 11

link
mirror
google
work
search
site
translate
edit
Top hashtags
#443
#325
#monero17
#wiki_414
#1210
#19
#26
#wiki_63
#142
#62
#72
#exchanges2
#fixed2
#i2
#ilikebigbuttsandicannotlie2
#oeae2
#upgrades2
#wiki_image_hoster2
#wiki_is_tails_necessary2
#wiki_tumblers2
Top emoji
😂3.3K
🤣9
👍6
🔥6
🤔5
🤷5
💗4
💥3
🔫3
😉3
😍3
😢3
🏻2
👊2
😁2

Computed over the full corpus.

Record

Catalog key
tbbt-2018-darknetmarkets
Authors
Cerulli, Aldo; Cima, Lorenzo; Tessa, Benedetta; Tardelli, Serena; Cresci, Stefano
Year
2026
Source paper
The Big Ban Theory: A Pre- and Post-Intervention Dataset of Online Content Moderation Actions
DOI / arXiv
10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42780
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0)
Records
168,096
Nodes
8,457
Edges
16,246 (directed)
Attributes
nodes have no attributes; edges have no attributes
Languages
en
Collected
2018 (3 months pre/post ban) (2010s)
Tasks
From the graph: link prediction, community detection
Region
Global (inferred: the platform is used worldwide)

Provenance

Originally published at
https://zenodo.org/records/18245670 link checked
Hosted copy
Mirrored on echo.directory on 2026-10-21, 119.9 MB across 3 files. Checksums in MANIFEST.json.

Citations

The Big Ban Theory: A Pre- and Post-Intervention Dataset of Online Content Moderation Actions
Aldo Cerulli, Lorenzo Cima, Benedetta Tessa, S. Tardelli, Stefano Cresci
Journal Article · Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · 2026

4
citations
few citations so far
0
influential citations
0% of all citations

Cited by

Citation data from Semantic Scholar, retrieved 2026-10-22.

How to cite

BibTeX

@misc{echo2026,
  title  = {ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online},
  author = {Switzer, Braden and Zafarani, Reza},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://echo.directory},
  note   = {Syracuse University}
}

@article{Cerulli_2026,
  title     = {The Big Ban Theory: A Pre- and Post-Intervention Dataset of Online Content Moderation Actions},
  volume    = {20},
  issn      = {2162-3449},
  url       = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42780},
  doi       = {10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42780},
  number    = {1},
  journal   = {Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media},
  publisher = {Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)},
  author    = {Cerulli, Aldo and Cima, Lorenzo and Tessa, Benedetta and Tardelli, Serena and Cresci, Stefano},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = May,
  pages     = {2756–2767}
}

APA

Switzer, B., & Zafarani, R. (2026). ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online [Data repository]. Syracuse University. https://echo.directory

Cerulli, A., Cima, L., Tessa, B., Tardelli, S., & Cresci, S. (2026). TBBT: r/darknetmarkets Ban Intervention (2018) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42780

MLA

Switzer, Braden, and Reza Zafarani. ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online. Syracuse University, 2026, echo.directory.

Cerulli, Aldo, et al. TBBT: r/darknetmarkets Ban Intervention (2018). 2026, doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42780.

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON

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