Related papers: Structural Dynamics of Harmful Content Disseminati…

Social media platforms aspire to create online experiences where users can participate safely and equitably. However, women around the world experience widespread online harassment, including insults, stalking, aggression, threats, and…

The rapid proliferation of the Internet and the widespread adoption of social networks have significantly accelerated information dissemination. However, this transformation has introduced complexities in information capture and processing,…

Public sharing is integral to online platforms. This includes the popular multimedia messaging application Snapchat, on which public sharing is relatively new and unexplored in prior research. In mobile-first applications, sharing contexts…

Like other social media websites, YouTube is not immune from the attention of spammers. In particular, evidence can be found of attempts to attract users to malicious third-party websites. As this type of spam is often associated with…

Misinformation on social media presents a major threat to modern societies. While previous research has analyzed the virality across true and false social media posts, not every misleading post is necessarily equally viral. Rather,…

Large-scale manipulations on social media have two important characteristics: (i) use of propaganda to influence others, and (ii) adoption of coordinated behavior to spread it and to amplify its impact. Despite the connection between them,…

Spreading phenomena essentially underlie the dynamics of various natural and technological networked systems, yet how spatiotemporal propagation patterns emerge from such networks remains largely unknown. Here we propose a novel approach…

Peer influence and social contagion are key denominators in the adoption and participation of information spreading, such as news propagation, word-of-mouth or viral marketing. In this study, we argue that it is biased to only focus on the…

Short video platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, are used by billions of users globally. These platforms expose users to harmful content, ranging from clickbait or physical harms to misinformation or online hate. Yet, detecting…

In the vast expanse of online communication, identifying unilateral preference patterns can be pivotal in understanding and mitigating risks such as predatory behavior. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to dissect and visualize…

Internet memes are powerful tools for communication, capable of spreading political, psychological, and sociocultural ideas. However, they can be harmful and can be used to disseminate hate toward targeted individuals or groups. Although…

Social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp have enabled users to share images with other users around the world. Along with this has come the rapid spread of misinformation. One step towards verifying the authenticity of an image is…

Humans make decisions based on the information they obtain from several major sources, among which the comments of others in Internet forums play an increasing role. Such forums cover a wide spectrum of topics and represent an essential…

Since traditional social media platforms continue to ban actors spreading hate speech or other forms of abusive languages (a process known as deplatforming), these actors migrate to alternative platforms that do not moderate users content.…

Telegram has become a major space for political discourse and alternative media. However, its lack of moderation allows misinformation, extremism, and toxicity to spread. While prior research focused on these particular phenomena or topics,…

According to the World Economic Forum, the diffusion of unsubstantiated rumors on online social media is one of the main threats for our society. The disintermediated paradigm of content production and consumption on online social media…

In order to combat the creation and spread of harmful content online, this paper defines and contextualizes the concept of inauthentic, societal-scale manipulation by malicious actors. We review the literature on societally harmful content…

Online social network (OSN) discussion groups are exerting significant effects on political dialogue. In the absence of access control mechanisms, any user can contribute to any OSN thread. Individuals can exploit this characteristic to…

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 link between affect, defined as the capacity for sentimental arousal on the part of a message, and virality, defined as the probability that it be sent along, is of significant theoretical and practical importance, e.g. for viral…