Quantifying Biases in Online Information Exposure

Our consumption of online information is mediated by filtering, ranking, and recommendation algorithms that introduce unintentional biases as they attempt to deliver relevant and engaging content. It has been suggested that our reliance on online technologies such as search engines and social media may limit exposure to diverse points of view and make us vulnerable to manipulation by disinformation. In this paper, we mine a massive dataset of Web traffic to quantify two kinds of bias: (i) homogeneity bias, which is the tendency to consume content from a narrow set of information sources, and (ii) popularity bias, which is the selective exposure to content from top sites. Our analysis reveals different bias levels across several widely used Web platforms. Search exposes users to a diverse set of sources, while social media traffic tends to exhibit high popularity and homogeneity bias. When we focus our analysis on traffic to news sites, we find higher levels of popularity bias, with smaller differences across applications. Overall, our results quantify the extent to which our choices of online systems confine us inside "social bubbles."Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, to appear in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST

The politics of disconnection on social media:A systematic review of politically motivated unfriending

Recent years have seen a surging scholarly interest in disconnective political behaviors on social media, commonly termed “politically motivated unfriending”. This study presents a systematic review of 28 articles (34 studies) on this topic. Through content analysis, it provides a robust synthesis of the research trend, contexts and focuses, the scale or prevalence of politically motivated unfriending, and its antecedents and consequences. Through inductive thematic coding, it identifies three recurring themes with regard to how politically motivated unfriending is understood and conceptualized—selective avoidance under the normative framework of the public sphere, self-care following the norm of personal spaces, and a means towards safe spaces within the social structure of unequal power differentials. We highlight the importance to examine political implications of social media through the lens of disconnectivity, discuss the democratic paradox of disconnective political behaviors, and offer recommendations for future researc

The Politics of Disconnection:A Systematic Review of Politically Motivated Unfriending

Recent years have seen a surging scholarly interest in disconnective political behaviors on social media, commonly termed “politically motivated unfriending.” This study presents a systematic review of 28 articles (34 studies) on this topic. Through content analysis, it provides a robust synthesis of the trend, contexts, and focuses of the research, the scale and prevalence of politically motivated unfriending, and its antecedents and consequences. Through inductive thematic coding, it identifies 3 recurring themes with regard to the conceptualizations of politically motivated unfriending—it is understood as selective avoidance under the normative framework of the public sphere, self-care following the logic of personal spaces, and a means to create safe spaces within unequal social structures. This systematic review highlights the importance of understanding the political implications of social media through the lens of disconnectivity, demonstrates the democratic paradox of disconnection, and offers recommendations for future research.</p

Falsehood Flies, and the Truth Comes Limping After : Combatting Online Disinformation in the Shadow of CUMSA

We live in an era of online disinformation. In the blink of an eye, any person can share a lie online with hundreds of people; within hours, that lie may have been seen by thousands or millions. Though the threat of online “echo chambers” has been exaggerated, the danger of online disinformation to informed voting has not. Each Canadian voter has a Charter right to be reasonably informed about candidates running for election, but online disinformation is threatening that right. The government of Canada may have a positive duty to protect this right; at the very least, it is a matter of good governance to counteract online disinformation. This obligation, however, is complicated by Canada’s ratification of CUSMA. Under article 19.17(2) of CUSMA, Canada has agreed to not pass laws that hold thirty-party platforms liable for content, including disinformation, posted on their websites. Article 19.17(2), however, must be interpreted narrowly in order to protection section 3 rights: though Canada cannot pass laws that hold thirty-platforms liable for user-generated content, it may create laws that hold such platforms liable for failure to remove user-generated disinformation. There are several tools the Canadian government may utilize to enforce such laws and combat disinformation generally

From Context Collapse to “Safe Spaces”:Selective Avoidance Through Tie Dissolution on Social Media

This study examines whether disconnective practices on social media such as unfriending could constitute a form of selective avoidance and investigates its boundary conditions. To do so, we study whether, to what extent, and under which conditions exposure to disagreement on social media predicts politically motivated unfriending. Specifically, we examine how the relationship varies in different relational contexts and whether it is conditioned by opinion minority status. Using survey data collected shortly before the 2017 Chief Executive Election in Hong Kong, we find cross-cutting exposure to be a significant predictor of politically motivated unfriending. This suggests that the disconnective practices represent a form of selective avoidance, but only among a relatively small number of social media users. We also show that only disagreements arising from political discussion with distant others predict unfriending. Furthermore, opinion minorities are more inclined to cut ties in the face of political disagreement than the majorities. Based on these findings, we discuss the weakness of weak ties on social media and characterize selective avoidance as a means to build digital “safe spaces”

A Content Analysis: Examining Facebook Comments on News Media Posts For Echo Chambers

Social media serves as a way for people to connect. People can choose who they connect with, this can cause echo chambers to appear online and can also cause in/out groups to become present. This thesis will examine echo chambers and in/out groups using a content analysis of comments on news media posts on Facebook. The two issues being examined are abortion and immigration. We will be looking at three news media pages: Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC News. What the content analysis will seek out to find is that the partisan news sources Fox News and MSNBC will have echo chambers of information and will attack a person of the out-group if they comment. These echo chambers and in/out-group behaviors could lead to other problems such as polarization

News By Association: Designing a Way Out of the Echo Chamber

This thesis is an investigation of the echo chamber phenomenon in news consumption on social networking sites. It incorporates elements of actor-network theory, Bruno Latour’s ‘matters-of-concern’ and Participatory Design methodology to identify and unpack contributing factors to the formation of echo chambers. As part of the research, a web tool called Echology was conceptualized during a series of workshops with news industry professionals. This paper describes the making of Echology, from ideation to actualization. The goal of this document and its accompanying design piece is to challenge readers to think critically about the forces at play in an online news experience