Black/Dark Website

A black or dark website is a dedicated set of web pages that provides critical information to key publics during an emergency or an event that disrupts an organization's operations. As a major crisis communications tool, dark websites are developed in anticipation of events but remain “dark” or “black” until they are needed and can be activated quickly and easily.

Various organizations develop contingency plans for how they will respond to incidents that are likely to occur or that might make them vulnerable. Examples include natural disasters, airline crashes, chemical explosions, oil spills, and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Dark websites can explain what happened, outline the remedies being taken, provide emergency response directions, restore orderly operations, allay concerns, and preserve fragile relationships with key publics.

Today, dark websites are deployed in tandem with various other digital tools: email, text and microblog messages, and already extant blogs, forums, and social networking sites. Web communications are [Page 74]especially important, however, because the World Wide Web is typically the first place users search for information. Web content managers and technical webmasters (along with media relations, email/text, and social media specialists) play integral roles in an organization's crisis response team. They typically report to the chief public relations officer or the executive directing the organization's communications response.

Because dark websites are created expressly for deployment if an incident occurs, they must provide simple, functional templates for how incident-specific information and materials might be posted. Site content typically includes news announcements, updates, fact sheets, Q&As, images, audio sound bites, and video clips.

Links direct visitors to preapproved background information, such as key facts about the organization and its history, the facility/location where the incident occurred (if applicable), safety records, executive biographies, photo archives, videos, and maps. Links are also created and tested in advance to connect visitors to organizational, industry, or community resources accessible during or after the emergency. These often include an organization's human resources/employee benefits group, grief counseling and related services, knowledgeable independent trade groups or industry experts, and local emergency response agencies.

In the early phases of a crisis, dark websites focus on providing timely, accurate, and authoritative facts. Later, they may be transformed into forums for the expression of grief, reflections about what occurred, analysis and commentaries, and explanations about future plans.

Depending on the circumstances, dark websites can be used to replace an organization's main site during a major emergency—but usually only if an organization's operations are shuttered entirely. Alternatively, dark websites typically augment an organization's regular site(s), where a banner, sidebar, or other prominent message is inserted to redirect visitors to the emergency or crisis information without disrupting critical online activities. Finally, issues managers can use independent microsites as dark websites to respond to controversies. These sites have their own web addresses featuring keywords directly related to the controversy. Users are directly referred to the site through promotional communications or find the site through keyword searches on search engines. Thus, these sites can operate without attracting the attention of the organization's regular website visitors.