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Public opinion is a crucial factor in shaping political decision-making. Nowadays, social media has become an essential platform for individuals to engage in political discussions and express their political views, presenting researchers…

This study investigates the use of causal narratives in public social media communications by U.S. public agencies over the first fifteen months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We extract causal narratives in the form of cause/effect pairs from…

Polarisation research has demonstrated how people cluster in homogeneous groups with opposing opinions. However, this effect emerges not only through interaction between people, limiting communication between groups, but also between…

Social media has become a crucial conduit for the swift dissemination of information during global crises. However, this also paves the way for the manipulation of narratives by malicious actors. This research delves into the interaction…

A defining characteristic of conspiracy texts is that they negotiate power and identity by recontextualizing prior knowledge. This dynamic has been shown to intensify on social media, where knowledge sources can readily be integrated into…

Echo chambers are defined by the simultaneous presence of opinion polarization with respect to a controversial topic and homophily, i.e. the preference of individuals to interact with like-minded peers. While recent efforts have been…

Recent years have witnessed a swelling rise of hateful and abusive content over online social networks. While detection and moderation of hate speech have been the early go-to countermeasures, the solution requires a deeper exploration of…

Echo chambers in online social networks, whereby users' beliefs are reinforced by interactions with like-minded peers and insulation from others' points of view, have been decried as a cause of political polarization. Here, we investigate…

Social media are pervaded by unsubstantiated or untruthful rumors, that contribute to the alarming phenomenon of misinformation. The widespread presence of a heterogeneous mass of information sources may affect the mechanisms behind the…

The explosive growth of social media has not only revolutionized communication but also brought challenges such as political polarization, misinformation, hate speech, and echo chambers. This dissertation employs computational social…

Recently a simple military exercise on the Internet was perceived as the beginning of a new civil war in the US. Social media aggregate people around common interests eliciting a collective framing of narratives and worldviews. However, the…

Conspiracy theories have long drawn public attention, but their explosive growth on platforms like Telegram during the COVID-19 pandemic raises pressing questions about their impact on societal trust, democracy, and public health. We…

On social platforms like Twitter, strategic targeted attacks are becoming increasingly common, especially against vulnerable groups such as female journalists. Two key challenges in identifying strategic online behavior are the complex…

Coordinated multi-platform information operations are implemented in a variety of contexts on social media, including state-run disinformation campaigns, marketing strategies, and social activism. Characterized by the promotion of messages…

For nearly a decade, disinformation has dominated social debates, with its harmful impacts growing more evident. Episodes like the January 6 United States Capitol attack and the Rohingya genocide exemplify how this phenomenon has been…

Social media platforms have become vital spaces for public discourse, serving as modern agor\`as where a wide range of voices influence societal narratives. However, their open nature also makes them vulnerable to exploitation by malicious…

Information-based attacks on social media, such as disinformation campaigns and propaganda, are emerging cybersecurity threats. The security community has focused on countering these threats on social media platforms like X and Reddit.…

The conflict in Ukraine has been not only characterised by military engagement but also by a significant information war, with social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter playing an important role in shaping public perception.…

Social media sites are becoming a key factor in politics. These platforms are easy to manipulate for the purpose of distorting information space to confuse and distract voters. Past works to identify disruptive patterns are mostly focused…

Polarized topics often spark discussion and debate on social media. Recent studies have shown that polarized debates have a specific clustered structure in the endorsement net- work, which indicates that users direct their endorsements…