The Spread of Misinformation in Social Media
(Room JW Grand Ballroom 8)
06 Jul 18
1:30 PM
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2:45 PM
As social media become major channels for the diffusion of news and information, they are also increasingly attractive and targeted for abuse and manipulation. This talk overviews network analytics, data mining, and modeling efforts to understand the spread of misinformation online and offline. I present machine learning methods to detect astroturf and social bots, as well as theoretical models to study how fake news and fact checking compete for our collective attention. These efforts will be framed by a case study in which, ironically, our own research became the target of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Based on joint work with collaborators at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research (cnets.indiana.edu) and the Indiana University Network Science Institute (iuni.iu.edu), this research is supported by the National Science Foundation, McDonnell Foundation, Democracy Fund, and DARPA. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of these funding agencies.