Related papers: Demystifying Misconceptions in Social Bots Researc…

As different research works report and daily life experiences confirm, learning models can result in biased outcomes. The biased learned models usually replicate historical discrimination in society and typically negatively affect the less…

Social media platforms attempting to curb abuse and misinformation have been accused of political bias. We deploy neutral social bots who start following different news sources on Twitter, and track them to probe distinct biases emerging…

In recent years, the proliferation of disinformation has become an issue against the backdrop of the spread of social media. In this study, we focus on socialbots, one of the causes of this problem, and analyze several domestic cases to…

The problem of how to effectively mitigate the flow of misinformation remains a significant challenge. The classical approach to this is public disapproval of claims or "debunking." The approach is still widely used on social media, but it…

Although not all bots are malicious, the vast majority of them are responsible for spreading misinformation and manipulating the public opinion about several issues, i.e., elections and many more. Therefore, the early detection of bots is…

Research on social bot detection plays a crucial role in maintaining the order and reliability of information dissemination while increasing trust in social interactions. The current mainstream social bot detection models rely on black-box…

We humans are biased - and our robotic creations are biased, too. Bias is a natural phenomenon that drives our perceptions and behavior, including when it comes to socially expressive robots that have humanlike features. Recognizing that we…

The use of reinforcement learning to dynamically adapt and evade detection is now well-documented in several cybersecurity settings including Covert Social Influence Operations (CSIOs), in which bots try to spread disinformation. While AI…

The use of bots as virtual confederates in online field experiments holds extreme promise as a new methodological tool in computational social science. However, this potential tool comes with inherent ethical challenges. Informed consent…

Research in social robotics is commonly focused on designing robots that imitate human behavior. While this might increase a user's satisfaction and acceptance of robots at first glance, it does not automatically aid a non-expert user in…

Human trust research uncovered important catalysts for trust building between interaction partners such as appearance or cognitive factors. The introduction of robots into social interactions calls for a reevaluation of these findings and…

In the Social Web scenario, large amounts of User-Generated Content (UGC) are diffused through social media often without almost any form of traditional trusted intermediaries. Therefore, the risk of running into misinformation is not…

Efficient and reliable social bot classification is crucial for detecting information manipulation on social media. Despite rapid development, state-of-the-art bot detection models still face generalization and scalability challenges, which…

A very large number of people use Online Social Networks daily. Such platforms thus become attractive targets for agents that seek to gain access to the attention of large audiences, and influence perceptions or opinions. Botnets,…

Deepfake technologies are often associated with deception, misinformation, and identity fraud, raising legitimate societal concerns. Yet such narratives may obscure a key insight: deepfakes embody sophisticated capabilities for sensory…

Bots are software systems designed to support users by automating a specific process, task, or activity. When such systems implement a conversational component to interact with the users, they are also known as conversational agents. Bots,…

Automated social media accounts, known as bots, have been shown to spread disinformation and manipulate online discussions. We study the behavior of retweet bots on Twitter during the first impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump. We…

In recent times, discussions on social media platforms have increasingly come under scrutiny due to the proliferation of science denial and fake news. Traditional solutions, such as regulatory actions, have been implemented to mitigate the…

The wide spread of false information online including misinformation and disinformation has become a major problem for our highly digitised and globalised society. A lot of research has been done to better understand different aspects of…

The prevalence of new technologies and social media has amplified the effects of misinformation on our societies. Thus, it is necessary to create computational tools to mitigate their effects effectively. This study aims to provide a…