Related papers: Global Patterns of Viral Content on WhatsApp
This paper aims to shed some light on the concept of virality - especially in social networks - and to provide new insights on its structure. We argue that: (a) virality is a phenomenon strictly connected to the nature of the content being…
We study learning on social media with an equilibrium model of users interacting with shared news stories. Rational users arrive sequentially, observe an original story (i.e., a private signal) and a sample of predecessors' stories in a…
Information flows are the result of a constant exchange in Online Social Networks (OSNs). OSN users create and share varying types of information in real-time throughout a day. Virality is introduced as a term to describe information that…
This study maps the spread of two cases of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation in Spanish and French in Latin American and French-speaking communities on Facebook, and thus contributes to understanding the dynamics, reach and…
Fake news is a prevalent problem, particularly in digital media, that undermines trust and cooperation among people. As a variety of global mitigation efforts arise, the understanding of how people consider fake news becomes important,…
In India, people identify with a particular group based on certain attributes such as religion. The same religious groups are often provoked against each other. Previous studies show the role of provocation in increasing tensions between…
In this dataset paper we describe our work on the collection and analysis of public WhatsApp group data. Our primary goal is to explore the feasibility of collecting and using WhatsApp data for social science research. We therefore present…
Studying information propagation dynamics in social media can elucidate user behaviors and patterns. However, previous research often focuses on single platforms and fails to differentiate between the nuanced roles of source users and other…
Misconceptions about digital security and privacy topics in the general public frequently lead to insecure behavior. However, little is known about the prevalence and extent of such misconceptions in a global context. In this work, we…
In this paper, we analyze content sharing between news sources in the alternative and mainstream media using a dataset of 713K articles and 194 sources. We find that content sharing happens in tightly formed communities, and these…
We consider the problem of broadcasting a viral video (a large file) over an ad hoc wireless network (e.g., students in a campus). Many smartphones are GPS enabled, and equipped with peer-to-peer (ad hoc) transmission mode, allowing them to…
The spread of misinformation on social media is a pressing societal problem that platforms, policymakers, and researchers continue to grapple with. As a countermeasure, recent works have proposed to employ non-expert fact-checkers in the…
Telegram has grown into a significant platform for news and information sharing, favored for its anonymity and minimal moderation. This openness, however, makes it vulnerable to misinformation and conspiracy theories. In this study, we…
In recent years, mass-broadcast messaging platforms like Telegram have gained prominence for both, serving as a harbor for private communication and enabling large-scale disinformation campaigns. The encrypted and networked nature of these…
Past research has attributed the online circulation of misinformation to two main factors - individual characteristics (e.g., a person's information literacy) and social media effects (e.g., algorithm-mediated information diffusion) - and…
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…
Since 2016, the amount of academic research with the keyword "misinformation" has more than doubled [2]. This research often focuses on article headlines shown in artificial testing environments, yet misinformation largely spreads through…
News reporting on events that occur in our society can have different styles and structures as well as different dynamics of news spreading over time. News publishers have the potential to spread their news and reach out to a large number…
Political organizations worldwide keep innovating their use of social media technologies. In the 2019 Indian general election, organizers used a network of WhatsApp groups to manipulate Twitter trends through coordinated mass postings. We…
WhatsApp has become a pivotal communication tool in India, transcending cultural boundaries and deeply integrating into the nation's digital landscape. Meta's introduction of WhatsApp for Business aligns seamlessly with the platform's…