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Cyberattacks pose a serious threat to modern sociotechnical systems, often resulting in severe technical and societal consequences. Attackers commonly target systems and infrastructure through methods such as malware, ransomware, or other…
Online social networks create echo-chambers where people are infrequently exposed to opposing opinions. Even if such exposure occurs, the persuasive effect may be minimal or nonexistent. Recent studies have shown that exposure to opposing…
The increased use of online social networks for the dissemination of information comes with the misuse of the internet for cyberbullying, cybercrime, spam, vandalism, amongst other things. To proactively identify abuse in the networks, we…
AI creates and exacerbates privacy risks, yet practitioners lack effective resources to identify and mitigate these risks. We present Privy, a tool that guides practitioners without privacy expertise through structured privacy impact…
Offensive and abusive language is a pressing problem on social media platforms. In this work, we propose a method for transforming offensive comments, statements containing profanity or offensive language, into non-offensive ones. We design…
Online harms are a growing problem in digital spaces, putting user safety at risk and reducing trust in social media platforms. One of the most persistent forms of harm is hate speech. To address this, we need tools that combine the speed…
Society is often polarized by controversial issues, that split the population into groups of opposing views. When such issues emerge on social media, we often observe the creation of 'echo chambers', i.e., situations where like-minded…
Communication plays a major role in social systems. Effective communications, which requires transmission of the messages between individuals without disruptions or noise, can be a powerful tool to deliver intended impact. Language and…
Despite remarkable advances that large language models have achieved in chatbots, maintaining a non-toxic user-AI interactive environment has become increasingly critical nowadays. However, previous efforts in toxicity detection have been…
With the recent rise of toxicity in online conversations on social media platforms, using modern machine learning algorithms for toxic comment detection has become a central focus of many online applications. Researchers and companies have…
The rise of personal assistant agents, e.g., OpenClaw, highlights the growing potential of large language models to support users across everyday life and work. A core challenge in these settings is proactive assistance, since users often…
In the age of the infodemic, it is crucial to have tools for effectively monitoring the spread of rampant rumors that can quickly go viral, as well as identifying vulnerable users who may be more susceptible to spreading such…
Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in understanding and generating human-like text, yet they largely operate as reactive agents, responding only when directly prompted. This passivity creates an…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has burrowed into our lives in various aspects; however, without appropriate testing, deployed AI systems are often being criticized to fail in critical and embarrassing cases. Existing testing approaches mainly…
Objective: Domestic abuse cases have risen significantly over the last four years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges for victims and survivors in accessing support. In this study, we investigate the role that chatbots…
The overwhelming amount and rate of information update in online social media is making it increasingly difficult for users to allocate their attention to their topics of interest, thus there is a strong need for prioritizing news feeds.…
Understanding complex user behaviour under various conditions, scenarios and journeys can be fundamental to the improvement of the user-experience for a given system. Predictive models of user reactions, responses -- and in particular,…
We study user behavior in the courses offered by a major Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) provider during the summer of 2013. Since social learning is a key element of scalable education in MOOCs and is done via online discussion forums,…
Conversational systems are crucial for human-computer interaction, managing complex dialogues by identifying threads and prioritising responses. This is especially vital in multi-party conversations, where precise identification of threads…
Human conversation relies heavily on conversational implicature, in which speakers convey meanings that are suggested rather than explicitly stated. Although recent large language models exhibit strong conversational fluency, they remain…