Reverse Intervention for Dealing with Malicious Information in Online Social Networks

Malicious information is often hidden in the massive data flow of online social networks. In “We Media'' era, if the system is closed without intervention, malicious information may spread to the entire network quickly, which would cause severe economic and political losses. This paper adopts a reverse intervention strategy from the perspective of topology control, so that the spread of malicious information could be suppressed at a minimum cost. Noting that as the information spreads, social networks often present a community structure and multiple malicious information promoters may appear. Therefore, this paper adopts a divide and conquer strategy and proposes an intervention algorithm based on subgraph partitioning, in which we search for some influential nodes to block or release clarification. The main algorithm consists of two main phases. Firstly, a subgraph partitioning method based on community structure is given to quickly extract the community structure of the information dissemination network. Secondly, a node blocking and clarification publishing algorithm based on the Jordan Center is proposed in the obtained subgraphs. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can effectively suppress the spread of malicious information with a low time complexity compared with the benchmark algorithms

Official long-term and short-term strategies for preventing the spread of rumors

Recently, public security incidents caused by rumor spreading have frequently occurred, leading to public panic, social chaos and even casualties. Therefore, how governments establish strategies to restrain rumor spreading is important for judging their governance capacity. Herein, we consider one long-term strategy (education) and two short-term strategies (isolation and debunking) for officials to intervene in rumor spreading. To investigate the effects of these strategies, an improved rumor-spreading model and a series of mean-field equations are proposed. Through theoretical analysis, the effective thresholds of three rumor-prevention strategies are obtained, respectively. Finally, through simulation analysis, the effectiveness of these strategies in preventing rumor spreading is investigated. The results indicate that long-term and short-term strategies are effective in suppressing rumor spreading. The greater the efforts of governments to suppress rumors, the smaller the final rumor size. The study also shows that the three strategies are the best when applied simultaneously. The government can adopt corresponding measures to suppress rumor spreading effectively

Combating Fake News on Social Media: A Framework, Review, and Future Opportunities

Social media platforms facilitate the sharing of a vast magnitude of information in split seconds among users. However, some false information is also widely spread, generally referred to as “fake news”. This can have major negative impacts on individuals and societies. Unfortunately, people are often not able to correctly identify fake news from truth. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find effective mechanisms to fight fake news on social media. To this end, this paper adapts the Straub Model of Security Action Cycle to the context of combating fake news on social media. It uses the adapted framework to classify the vast literature on fake news to action cycle phases (i.e., deterrence, prevention, detection, and mitigation/remedy). Based on a systematic and inter-disciplinary review of the relevant literature, we analyze the status and challenges in each stage of combating fake news, followed by introducing future research directions. These efforts allow the development of a holistic view of the research frontier on fighting fake news online. We conclude that this is a multidisciplinary issue; and as such, a collaborative effort from different fields is needed to effectively address this problem

THE SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE NEW MEDIA BUSINESS: AMONG STATE, MARKET, AND PUBLIC

Master'sMASTER OF ART

Crime Legends in Old and New Media

This project explores the contemporary meanings and persistence of the crime legend. A case study approach was used: three crime legends with a considerable history of public debunking were chosen. These cases were: the market in snuff films, the theft of vital organs for black-market transplant, and the abduction of children from theme park restrooms. Current versions circulating in Internet newsgroups and via electronic mail lists were collected. Discussions in Internet newsgroups were examined and twenty regular newsgroup participants were interviewed. The public newsgroup communication environment is such that salience is established by the interlocutors themselves, rather than by the researcher, as had been the case with previous approaches of both qualitative and quantitative approaches. News reports about these legends, and fictional film and television depictions of the crimes in these legends were also sought out for content analysis. Multiple sources of data were sought in order to address the hard-to-document nature of rumors and urban legends. The news media do not appear to be a significant intentional vector of crime legends. This finding suggests that the crime legend remains a largely word-of-mouth, and now e-mail based form which travels mainly through informal, personal networks of dissemination. Styles of belief and disbelief were found to be varied and mutually dependent: the resonance of each tale involves the consideration and rejection of skepticism. Most believers engaged in conditional or instrumental forms of belief, finding them useful as truths regardless of their basis in conventional evidence. This situation suggests that rumors and legends can be sustained in the absence of fervent or strictly literal believers. This inquiry also revealed that specific legends are deployed to adapt to generalized fear, or that fear which results from a sense of ontological insecurity (Giddens, 1990). Following Giddens\u27 formulation, this insecurity is intertwined with distrust stemming from an uncertain relationship between the individual and the social protection expected in the past from both formal state activities and informal routines which were seen to provide safety in numbers. Crime legends, understood as social practices as well as texts, concentrate, individualize, and normalize public, safety threats

Content Providers’ Secondary Liability: A Social Network Perspective

Recent technological developments allow Internet users to disseminate ideas to a large audience. These technological advances empower individuals and promote important social objectives. However, they also create a setting for speech-related torts, harm, and abuse. One legal path to deal with online defamation turns to the liability of online content providers who facilitate the harmful exchanges. The possibility of bringing them to remove defamatory content and collecting damages from them attracted a great deal of attention in scholarly work, court decisions, and regulations. Different countries established different legal regimes. The United States allows an extensive shield—an overall immunity, as it exempts the liability of content providers in speech torts. This policy is not adopted worldwide. The E.U. directive outlines a “notice-and-takedown” safe haven. Other countries, such as Canada, use common tort law practices. This Article criticizes all of these policy models for being either over or under inclusive. This Article makes the case for a context-specific regulatory regime. It identifies specific characteristics of different content providers with their own unique settings, which call for nuanced legal rules that shall provide an optimal liability regime. To that end, the Article sets forth an innovative taxonomy: it relies on sociological studies premised on network theory and analysis, which is neutral to technological advances. This framework distinguishes between different technological settings based on the strength of social ties formed in each context. The Article explains that the strength of such ties influences the social context of online interactions and flow of information. The strength of ties is the best tool for designing different liability regimes; such ties serve as a proxy for the severity of harm that defamatory online speech might cause, and the social norms that might mitigate or exacerbate speech-related harm. The proposed taxonomy makes it possible to apply a sociological analysis to legal policy and to outline modular rules for content providers’ liability at every juncture. This Article does so while taking into account basic principles of tort law, as well as freedom of speech, reputation, fairness, efficiency, and the importance of promoting innovation

Content Providers’ Secondary Liability: A Social Network Perspective

Recent technological developments allow Internet users to disseminate ideas to a large audience. These technological advances empower individuals and promote important social objectives. However, they also create a setting for speech-related torts, harm, and abuse. One legal path to deal with online defamation turns to the liability of online content providers who facilitate the harmful exchanges. The possibility of bringing them to remove defamatory content and collecting damages from them attracted a great deal of attention in scholarly work, court decisions, and regulations. Different countries established different legal regimes. The United States allows an extensive shield—an overall immunity, as it exempts the liability of content providers in speech torts. This policy is not adopted worldwide. The E.U. directive outlines a “notice-and-takedown” safe haven. Other countries, such as Canada, use common tort law practices. This Article criticizes all of these policy models for being either over or under inclusive. This Article makes the case for a context-specific regulatory regime. It identifies specific characteristics of different content providers with their own unique settings, which call for nuanced legal rules that shall provide an optimal liability regime. To that end, the Article sets forth an innovative taxonomy: it relies on sociological studies premised on network theory and analysis, which is neutral to technological advances. This framework distinguishes between different technological settings based on the strength of social ties formed in each context. The Article explains that the strength of such ties influences the social context of online interactions and flow of information. The strength of ties is the best tool for designing different liability regimes; such ties serve as a proxy for the severity of harm that defamatory online speech might cause, and the social norms that might mitigate or exacerbate speech-related harm. The proposed taxonomy makes it possible to apply a sociological analysis to legal policy and to outline modular rules for content providers’ liability at every juncture. This Article does so while taking into account basic principles of tort law, as well as freedom of speech, reputation, fairness, efficiency, and the importance of promoting innovation