Exploring the digital gray zone of online medicinal markets emerging from search
本研究以瑞典和谷歌搜索为例，通过分析搜索结果页面、网络爬虫和网络数据，发现灰色市场仅在搜索勃起功能障碍药物时出现，非法卖家成功竞争到高排名，可能将消费者引向未经授权的医药产品。
Abstract This explorative study investigates the emergence of gray zone markets from search engines amidst the global expansion of online markets. With the analytical approach of infrastructural inversion, we examine how the search infrastructure constructs access to a gray zone market including both authorized online pharmacies and unauthorized vendors. Using Sweden and Google Search as a case, we explore the online presence of three products (vitamin D, paracetamol, and Viagra), through search engine result page analysis, web crawling, and network analysis. Infrastructural inversion unveils the typically invisible mechanisms of search engines, considering user queries, algorithmic priorities, SEO practices, and pharmacy regulations. We find gray zones only emerge in searches for erectile disfunction medicinal products and information, where unauthorized vendors successfully competed for visibility in search engine rankings. A complex web of conditions can steer consumers toward gray zone markets, complicating the access to safe and regulated medicinal products. This can expose individuals to risks associated with unverified medicinal products, but also challenges the integrity of the online health information infrastructure.