Privacy and Security in Decentralized and Anonymous Systems

Research at a Glance

Topic	Data and Methods	Main Finding	Key Papers
Tor adoption and knowledge accumulation	Country-level panel data, search-trace modeling	Tor uptake is associated with motivation and how-to knowledge, with political-context differences in usage patterns.	(Chen et al., 2024)
Sustainability in anonymous communities	Dark Web and Surface Web forum traces, survival analysis, NLP	Anonymous forums show distinct interaction and sustainability dynamics; language-use patterns are associated with retention and exit.	(Chen & Liu, 2025; Chen et al., 2023)
Dark-side platform use and misinformation beliefs	US survey data, matching and IV robustness checks	Dark-side platform use is positively associated with misinformation beliefs in public-health and electoral contexts.	(Chen et al., 2025)

Methods Stack

Category	Methods
Inference	Panel models, survival analysis, matching and instrumental-variable designs
Computation	NLP, behavioral trace analytics, network analysis
Data	Cross-national traces, online community logs, survey datasets

Program Direction

Build reproducible measurement frameworks for online safety and platform risk.
Publish methods and empirical findings across computing/security and interdisciplinary venues.
Develop modular PhD projects in data engineering, modeling, and risk evaluation.

References

2025

EPJ Data Sci.

Tales of Twin Forums on the Dark and Surface Web: Social Interactions and User Sustainability in Anonymous Online Communities

Zhicong Chen and X. F. Liu

EPJ Data Science, 2025

DOI Bib

@article{chen2025twin,
  title = {Tales of Twin Forums on the Dark and Surface Web: Social Interactions and User Sustainability in Anonymous Online Communities},
  author = {Chen, Zhicong and Liu, X. F.},
  journal = {EPJ Data Science},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1140/epjds/s13688-025-00614-1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-025-00614-1},
}

Commun. Public

The dark side of the Internet: Fueling misinformation in the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US Presidential Election

Zhicong Chen, W. Yu, Y. Sun, and 2 more authors

Communication and the Public, 2025

DOI Bib

@article{chen2025darkside,
  title = {The dark side of the Internet: Fueling misinformation in the {COVID}-19 pandemic and the 2020 {US} Presidential Election},
  author = {Chen, Zhicong and Yu, W. and Sun, Y. and Wang, C.-J. and Liu, X. F.},
  journal = {Communication and the Public},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1177/20570473251323752},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473251323752},
}

2024

NM&S

Seeking anonymity on the Internet: The knowledge accumulation process and global usage of the Tor network

Zhicong Chen, E. Jardine, X. F. Liu, and 1 more author

New Media & Society, 2024

DOI Bib

@article{chen2024tor,
  title = {Seeking anonymity on the Internet: The knowledge accumulation process and global usage of the {Tor} network},
  author = {Chen, Zhicong and Jardine, E. and Liu, X. F. and Zhu, J. J. H.},
  journal = {New Media \& Society},
  volume = {26},
  number = {2},
  pages = {1074--1095},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1177/14614448211072201},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211072201},
}

2023

HSSC

The Dark Web Privacy Dilemma: Linguistic Diversity, Talkativeness, and User Engagement on the Cryptomarket Forums

Zhicong Chen, X. Meng, and C. J. Wang

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2023

DOI Bib

@article{chen2023darkweb,
  title = {The Dark Web Privacy Dilemma: Linguistic Diversity, Talkativeness, and User Engagement on the Cryptomarket Forums},
  author = {Chen, Zhicong and Meng, X. and Wang, C. J.},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences Communications},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1--11},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1057/s41599-023-02424-0},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02424-0},
}