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Since September 2023, the Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges large online platforms to submit detailed data on each moderation action they take within the European Union (EU) to the DSA Transparency Database. From its inception, this…
We present a mechanism that puts users in the center of control and empowers them to dictate the access to their collections of data. Revisiting the fundamental mechanisms in security for providing protection, our solution uses…
Decentralisation is one of the promises introduced by blockchain technologies: fair and secure interaction amongst peers with no dominant positions, single points of failure or censorship. Decentralisation, however, appears difficult to be…
Existing decentralized storage protocols fall short of the service required by real-world applications. Their throughput, latency, cost-effectiveness, and availability are insufficient for demanding workloads such as video streaming,…
Communication anonymity is a key requirement for individuals under targeted surveillance. Practical anonymous communications also require indistinguishability - an adversary should be unable to distinguish between anonymised and…
Blockchain consensus faces a trilemma of security, latency, and decentralization. High-throughput systems often require a reduction in decentralization or robustness against strong adversaries, while highly decentralized and secure systems…
Twitter data have become essential to Natural Language Processing (NLP) and social science research, driving various scientific discoveries in recent years. However, the textual data alone are often not enough to conduct studies: especially…
Off-grid networks are recently emerging as a solution to connect the unconnected or provide alternative services to networks of possibly untrusted participants. The systems currently used, however, exhibit limitations due to their…
Scholarly communication is today immersed in publish or perish culture that propels noncooperative behaviour in the sense of strategic games played by researchers. Here we introduce and describe a blockchain based platform for decentralized…
We address the polling problem in social networks where individuals collaborate to choose the most favorite choice amongst some options, without divulging their vote and publicly exposing their potentially malicious actions. Given this…
On the Internet large service providers tend to control the digital identities of users. These defacto identity authorities wield significant power over users, compelling them to comply with non-negotiable terms, before access to services…
Blockchain technology promises to democratize finance and promote social equity through decentralization, but questions remain about whether current implementations advance or hinder these goals. Through a mixed-methods study combining…
Cryptocurrencies have recently been in the spotlight of public debate due to their embrace by the new US President, with crypto fans expecting a 'bull run'. The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is more than \$3.50 trillion, with…
A decentralized online petition system enables individuals or groups to create, sign, and share petitions without a central authority. Using blockchain technology, these systems ensure the integrity and transparency of the petition process…
Algorithmic feeds have become primary environments for encountering information online, yet while they shape what people see, less is known about how sustained feed exposure shapes how people write. Drawing on Cultivation Theory, we examine…
This paper presents, for the first time, the Mediterraneous protocol. It is designed to support the development of an Internet of digital services, owned by their creators, and consumed by users by presenting their decentralised digital…
The rapid diversification of social media platforms and the increasing restrictions on official APIs have significantly complicated cross-platform analysis. Researchers are often forced to rely on heterogeneous datasets obtained through web…
Online social networks (OSNs) have become increasingly relevant for studying social behavior and information diffusion. Nevertheless, they are limited by restricted access to real OSN data due to privacy, legal, and platform-related…
Anonymous communication networks have emerged as crucial tools for obfuscating communication pathways and concealing user identities. However, their practical deployments face significant challenges, including susceptibility to artificial…
Operators of online social networks are increasingly sharing potentially sensitive information about users and their relationships with advertisers, application developers, and data-mining researchers. Privacy is typically protected by…