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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…
Hate speech on social media threatens the mental and physical well-being of individuals and contributes to real-world violence. Resharing is an important driver behind the spread of hate speech on social media. Yet, little is known about…
Social networks seeded, crystallized and structured by large-scale social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and WeChat exhibit complicated epistemic structures and dynamics that arise from the nature of…
Social media platforms promise to enable rich and vibrant conversations online; however, their potential is often hindered by antisocial behaviors. In this paper, we study the relationship between structure and toxicity in conversations on…
Widespread interest in the diffusion of information through social networks has produced a large number of Social Dynamics models. A majority of them use theoretical hypothesis to explain their diffusion mechanisms while the few empirically…
Recent research has shown the deep impact of the dynamics of human interactions (or temporal social networks) on the spreading of information, opinion formation, etc. In general, the bursty nature of human interactions lowers the…
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…
Although recent studies show that both topological structures and human dynamics can strongly affect information spreading on social networks, the complicated interplay of the two significant factors has not yet been clearly described. In…
Information-based attacks on social media, such as disinformation campaigns and propaganda, are emerging cybersecurity threats. The security community has focused on countering these threats on social media platforms like X and Reddit.…
The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has prompted extensive online discussions, creating an `infodemic' on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter. However, the information shared on these platforms is prone to be unreliable and/or…
Fake news and misinformation are one of the most significant challenges brought about by advances in communication technologies. We chose to research the spread of fake news in Pakistan because of some unfortunate incidents that took place…
WhatsApp has introduced a novel avenue for smartphone users to engage with and disseminate news stories. The convenience of forming interest-based groups and seamlessly sharing content has rendered WhatsApp susceptible to the exploitation…
WhatsApp and many other commonly used communication platforms guarantee end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which requires that service providers lack the cryptographic keys to read communications on their own platforms. WhatsApp's…
The diffusion of novel information through social networks is essential for dismantling echo chambers and promoting innovation. Our study examines how two major types of viral channels, specifically Direct Messaging (DM) and Broadcasting…
This paper investigates the research question if senders of large amounts of irrelevant or unsolicited information - commonly called "spammers" - distort the network structure of social networks. Two large social networks are analyzed, the…
WeChat is a mobile messaging application that has 549 million active users as of Q1 2015, and "WeChat Moments" (WM) serves its social-networking function that allows users to post/share links of web pages. WM differs from the other social…
Over the past few years, we have observed different media outlets' attempts to shift public opinion by framing information to support a narrative that facilitate their goals. Malicious users referred to as "pathogenic social media" (PSM)…
The automatic identification of harmful content online is of major concern for social media platforms, policymakers, and society. Researchers have studied textual, visual, and audio content, but typically in isolation. Yet, harmful content…
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…
WhatsApp messenger is arguably the most popular mobile app available on all smart-phones. Over one billion people worldwide for free messaging, calling, and media sharing use it. In April 2016, WhatsApp switched to a default end-to-end…