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Spread & networksDatasets & evaluation
The Web of False Information: Rumors, Fake News, Hoaxes, Clickbait, and Various Other ShenanigansComprehensive typology of the false information ecosystem on the Web, identifying eight types of false information (fabricated stories, propaganda, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, biased news, rumors, clickbait, satire), twelve actor categories (bots, criminal organizations, activists, governments, paid posters, journalists, useful idiots,…
Bots & coordinated campaignsSpread & networks
Who Let The Trolls Out? Towards Understanding State-Sponsored TrollsComparative analysis of 934 Russian and 770 Iranian state-sponsored trolls across Twitter and Reddit (10M posts) reveals distinct operational patterns: Russian trolls prioritized URL amplification (retweets, mentions) and pro-Trump messaging; Iranian trolls pursued regional and anti-Trump narratives motivated by real-world events. Both…
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web CommunitiesLarge-scale empirical study of how image memes originate and propagate across fringe and mainstream Web communities. Analyzes 160M images posted to Twitter, Reddit, /pol/, and Gab (2016–2017) using perceptual hashing, clustering, and custom distance metrics.
Bots & coordinated campaignsPlatforms, policy & society
Disinformation Warfare: Understanding State-Sponsored Trolls on Twitter and Their Influence on the WebLarge-scale empirical study of 2.7K Russian state-sponsored troll accounts and 27K tweets (Jan 2016–Sep 2017) reveals minimal direct Twitter influence but significant content amplification through RT news outlet. Trolls actively target political events, adopt multiple identities, concentrate geographically in USA/Germany/Eastern Europe,…
Spread & networksDetection methods
Studying Fake News via Network Analysis: Detection and MitigationThis chapter surveys network-based approaches to fake news detection and mitigation on social media, organizing fake news dissemination along three dimensions (content, social, temporal) and introduces methods exploiting network structure: homogeneous networks (friendship, diffusion, credibility) and heterogeneous networks (knowledge,…
Spread & networksPlatforms, policy & society
Combating Fake News with Interpretable News Feed AlgorithmsThis position paper reviews fake news detection methods and argues that news feed algorithms are insufficiently transparent, enabling echo chambers and filter bubbles that amplify misinformation. The authors propose interpretable and explainable news feed algorithms as a solution, positioning transparency and user awareness as critical…
Datasets & evaluationSpread & networks
Sampling the News Producers: A Large News and Feature Data Set for the Study of the Complex Media LandscapeIntroduces NELA2017, a dataset of 1,586 news articles from 92 diverse news sources over 7 months (April–October 2017), including mainstream outlets, hyper-partisan sources, satire, and deliberately false news sites. Computes 130 content-based linguistic and engagement features on each article, enabling large-scale comparative analysis of…
Psychology & interventionsPlatforms, policy & society
Hate Lingo: A Target-based Linguistic Analysis of Hate Speech in Social MediaThis paper presents the first large-scale linguistic and psycholinguistic analysis of hate speech categorized by its target: directed (personal attacks) versus generalized (targeting groups). The authors analyze 28,318 directed and ~2,500 generalized hate tweets, revealing that directed hate is more informal, angry, and explicitly…
Datasets & evaluationSpread & networks
FakeNewsNet: A Data Repository with News Content, Social Context and Spatiotemporal Information for Studying Fake News on Social MediaFakeNewsNet is a multi-dimensional repository for fake news research on social media, integrating news content (linguistic and visual features), social context (user engagement, network structure, response patterns), and spatiotemporal information (location, timestamps). The dataset contains both fake and real news from PolitiFact and…
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
Anatomy of an online misinformation networkA network analysis of misinformation and fact-checking spread during the 2016 US Presidential Election reveals stark segregation between the two communities on Twitter. The core of the network is dominated by misinformation spreaders; fact-checking nearly disappears in the densest regions.
Spread & networksDetection methods
Rumor Detection on Twitter with Tree-structured Recursive Neural NetworksProposes two variants of recursive neural networks (RvNN)—bottom-up and top-down—that operate on propagation tree structures of tweets to detect rumors. Rather than treating tweets sequentially, the model learns representations that respect how tweets actually propagate in response threads.
Bots & coordinated campaignsSpread & networks
Bots increase exposure to negative and inflammatory content in online social systemsSocial bots during the 2017 Catalan independence referendum strategically targeted influential humans to amplify negative and inflammatory content. Operating from network peripheries, bots coordinated sentiment-driven amplification that exacerbated polarization, with approximately one in three referendum-related tweets generated by bots.
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
Influencers in Polarized Political Networks on TwitterThis paper identifies three types of influencers in polarized political Twitter conversations during Brazil's 2016 Dilma Rousseff impeachment: "opinion leaders" who shape discourse within ideological groups, "informational influencers" (media/institutions) drawn into one camp, and "activists" who amplify like-minded messages. The…
Spread & networksPsychology & interventions
The small, disloyal fake news audience: The role of audience availability in fake news consumptionContrary to claims that fake news has reached a broad audience, this empirical analysis of comScore data shows the fake news audience is small and comprises heavy internet users. Applying the Law of Double Jeopardy from media theory, the authors show that fake news attracts disloyal audiences disproportionately from social platforms.
Spread & networksPlatforms, policy & society
Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarizationThis field experiment tested whether exposure to opposing political views on social media reduces polarization. Twitter users (Republicans and Democrats) were randomly offered money to follow bots retweeting messages from opposing politicians and opinion leaders for one month.