Related papers: Global Patterns of Viral Content on WhatsApp
Social media have quickly become a prevalent channel to access information, spread ideas, and influence opinions. However, it has been suggested that social and algorithmic filtering may cause exposure to less diverse points of view, and…
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant rise in the spread of misinformation on online platforms such as Twitter. Oftentimes this growth is blamed on the idea of the "echo chamber." However, the behavior said to…
The crime of illegally filming and distributing images or videos worldwide is increasing day by day. With the increasing penetration rate of smartphones, there has been a rise in crimes involving secretly taking pictures of people's bodies…
Video-sharing social media like YouTube provide access to diverse cultural products from all over the world, making it possible to test theories that the Web facilitates global cultural convergence. Drawing on a daily listing of YouTube's…
With the increasing use of online social networks as a source of news and information, the propensity for a rumor to disseminate widely and quickly poses a great concern, especially in disaster situations where users do not have enough time…
WeChat is the largest social instant messaging platform in China, with 1.1 billion monthly active users. "Top Stories" is a novel friend-enhanced recommendation engine in WeChat, in which users can read articles based on preferences of both…
Diffusion of information and viral content, social contagion and influence are still topics of broad evaluation. We have studied the information epidemic in a social networking platform in order compare different campaign setups. The goal…
The development of the internet has allowed for the global distribution of content, redefining media communication and property structures through various streaming platforms. Previous studies successfully clarified the factors contributing…
Social media users drive the spread of misinformation online by sharing posts that include erroneous information or commenting on controversial topics with unsubstantiated arguments often in earnest. Work on echo chambers has suggested that…
Censorship and the distribution of false information, tools used to manipulate what users see and believe, are seemingly at opposite ends of the information access spectrum. Most previous work has examined them in isolation and within…
Misinformation is on the rise, and the strong writing capabilities of LLMs lower the barrier for malicious actors to produce and disseminate false information. We study how LLMs behave when prompted to spread misinformation across languages…
The massive diffusion of online social media allows for the rapid and uncontrolled spreading of conspiracy theories, hoaxes, unsubstantiated claims, and false news. Such an impressive amount of misinformation can influence policy…
Studying information diffusion and the spread of goods in the real world and in many digital services can be extremely difficult since information about the information flows is challenging to accurately track. How information spreads has…
We live in a global village where electronic communication has eliminated the geographical barriers of information exchange. The road is now open to worldwide convergence of information interests, shared values, and understanding.…
The wide availability of user-provided content in online social media facilitates the aggregation of people around common interests, worldviews, and narratives. Despite the enthusiastic rhetoric on the part of some that this process…
Misinformation proliferates in the online sphere, with evident impacts on the political and social realms, influencing democratic discourse and posing risks to public health and safety. The corporate world is also a prime target for fake…
A number of recent studies of information diffusion in social media, both empirical and theoretical, have been inspired by viral propagation models derived from epidemiology. These studies model the propagation of memes, i.e., pieces of…
The present online social media platform is afflicted with several issues, with hate speech being on the predominant forefront. The prevalence of online hate speech has fueled horrific real-world hate-crime such as the mass-genocide of…
Cumulative effect in social contagions underlies many studies on the spread of innovation, behaviors, and influence. However, few large-scale empirical studies are conducted to validate the existence of cumulative effect in the information…
AI-generated content and misinformation are increasingly prevalent on social networks. While prior research primarily examined textual misinformation, fewer studies have focused on visual content's role in virality. In this work, we present…