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Despite significant conceptual progress in recent years, there is still room to improve the parity between accounts in regulatory, legal, and scholarly domains. Furthermore, the need for more conceptual clarity is becoming increasingly pressing with the EU\u2019s AI Act aiming to regulate against digital manipulation, and the term \u2018dark patterns\u2019 now codified in various EU laws. This paper aims to show how a philosophical framework, namely Sterelny\u2019s (2003) notion of \u2018hostility\u2019, provides conceptual benefits, characterizing all dark patterns as\n                    <jats:italic>hostile patterns<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2014i.e., digital interfaces that influence or affect users in ways that undermine user interests while serving the interests of platforms\/ services. The benefits of a \u2018hostility\u2019 approach can be summarized as: (1) it points to the core problematic in all dark pattern types: \u2018hostility\u2019; (2) it allows us to differentiate dark patterns from anti-patterns (and adjacent cases); (3) we can decouple an account from other salient concerns, such as intentionality; and (4) it allows for greater conceptual inclusivity\/ potential universalizability. After expanding on this \u2018hostility\u2019 characterization, I show how we might convert Sterelny\u2019s paradigm to account for the various ways dark patterns harm user interests, drawing on Feinberg (1984). Lastly, I close by discussing how the account is broad enough to also develop organically with contemporary issues within the \u2018ethics of influence\u2019 literature.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s10676-025-09856-z","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T07:03:48Z","timestamp":1760166228000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["All \u2018Dark patterns\u2019 Are \u2018Hostile patterns\u2019: A Hostility Framework for Understanding Problematic Digital Interfaces"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Ryan Gary","family":"Timms","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"9856_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ahuja, S., & Kumar, J. (2022). 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