Related papers: Inside the Right-Leaning Echo Chambers: Characteri…
Despite the valuable social interactions that online media promote, these systems provide space for speech that would be potentially detrimental to different groups of people. The moderation of content imposed by many social media has…
Over the past few years, a number of new "fringe" communities, like 4chan or certain subreddits, have gained traction on the Web at a rapid pace. However, more often than not, little is known about how they evolve or what kind of activities…
Users online tend to consume information adhering to their system of beliefs and to ignore dissenting information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, users get exposed to a massive amount of information about a new topic having a high level of…
Recent studies have shown that online users tend to select information adhering to their system of beliefs, ignore information that does not, and join groups - i.e., echo chambers - around a shared narrative. Although a quantitative…
Social media has become an important venue for diverse groups to share information, discuss political issues, and organize social movements. Recent scholarship has shown that the social media ecosystem can affect political thinking and…
Most of the information operations involve users who may foster polarization and distrust toward science and mainstream journalism, without these users being conscious of their role. Gab is well known to be an extremist-friendly platform…
Social platforms such as Gab and Parler, branded as `free-speech' networks, have seen a significant growth of their user base in recent years. This popularity is mainly attributed to the stricter moderation enforced by mainstream platforms…
Gab, an online social media platform with very little content moderation, has recently come to prominence as an alt-right community and a haven for hate speech. We document the evolution of Gab since its inception until a Gab user carried…
Online social networks are the perfect test bed to better understand large-scale human behavior in interacting contexts. Although they are broadly used and studied, little is known about how their terms of service and posting rules affect…
Online social media, periodically serves as a platform for cascading polarizing topics of conversation. The inherent community structure present in online social networks (homophily) and the advent of fringe outlets like Gab have created…
Gab is an online social network often associated with the alt-right political movement and users barred from other networks. It presents an interesting opportunity for research because near-complete data is available from day one of the…
With the ongoing debate on 'freedom of speech' vs. 'hate speech' there is an urgent need to carefully understand the consequences of the inevitable culmination of the two, i.e., 'freedom of hate speech' over time. An ideal scenario to…
Parler, a "free speech" platform popular with conservatives, was taken offline in January 2021 due to the lack of moderation of hateful and QAnon- and other conspiracy-related content that allegedly made it instrumental in the organisation…
In recent years, several free-speech social media platforms (so-called "alt-techs") have emerged, such as Parler, Gab, and Telegram. These platforms market themselves as alternatives to mainstream social media and proclaim "free-speech" due…
The ubiquity of social media has transformed online interactions among individuals. Despite positive effects, it has also allowed anti-social elements to unite in alternative social media environments (eg. Gab.com) like never before.…
The presence of political misinformation and ideological echo chambers on social media platforms is concerning given the important role that these sites play in the public's exposure to news and current events. Algorithmic systems employed…
Echo chambers on social media are a significant problem that can elicit a number of negative consequences, most recently affecting the response to COVID-19. Echo chambers promote conspiracy theories about the virus and are found to be…
The Web consists of numerous Web communities, news sources, and services, which are often exploited by various entities for the dissemination of false information. Yet, we lack tools and techniques to effectively track the propagation of…
Echo chambers, i.e., situations where one is exposed only to opinions that agree with their own, are an increasing concern for the political discourse in many democratic countries. This paper studies the phenomenon of political echo…
Online hate speech on social media has become a fast-growing problem in recent times. Nefarious groups have developed large content delivery networks across several main-stream (Twitter and Facebook) and fringe (Gab, 4chan, 8chan, etc.)…