[Paper Review] The Web of False Information: Rumors, Fake News, Hoaxes, Clickbait, and Various Other Shenanigans

Savvas Zannettou, Michael Sirivianos+2 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 10, 2018

Misinformation and Its Impacts167 references61 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a typology of the Web’s false information ecosystem and surveys literature on user perception, propagation, detection, and political false information, outlining gaps and future directions.

ABSTRACT

A new era of Information Warfare has arrived. Various actors, including state-sponsored ones, are weaponizing information on Online Social Networks to run false information campaigns with targeted manipulation of public opinion on specific topics. These false information campaigns can have dire consequences to the public: mutating their opinions and actions, especially with respect to critical world events like major elections. Evidently, the problem of false information on the Web is a crucial one, and needs increased public awareness, as well as immediate attention from law enforcement agencies, public institutions, and in particular, the research community. In this paper, we make a step in this direction by providing a taxonomy of the Web's false information ecosystem, comprising various types of false information, actors, and their motives. We report a comprehensive overview of existing research on the false information ecosystem by identifying several lines of work: 1) how the public perceives false information; 2) understanding the propagation of false information; 3) detecting and containing false information on the Web; and 4) false information on the political stage. In this work, we pay particular attention to political false information as: 1) it can have dire consequences to the community (e.g., when election results are mutated) and 2) previous work show that this type of false information propagates faster and further when compared to other types of false information. Finally, for each of these lines of work, we report several future research directions that can help us better understand and mitigate the emerging problem of false information dissemination on the Web.

Motivation & Objective

• Propose a typology of false information types, actors, and motives on the Web.
• Summarize existing research across four lines of work: user perception, propagation dynamics, detection/containment, and political false information.
• Highlight gaps and propose future research directions to mitigate false information dissemination on the Web.
• Emphasize the importance of political false information due to its potential societal impact.

Proposed method

• Develop a structured typology of false information (types, actors, motives) based on an extensive literature study.
• Provide a comprehensive overview of prior work within the identified lines of research.
• Pay particular attention to political misinformation and its distinctive effects and implications.
• Offer identified gaps and future research directions for understanding and mitigating false information dissemination.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the various types and instances of false information on the Web (and their characteristics)?
• RQ2 Who are the actors that diffuse false information and what are their motives?
• RQ3 What are the main lines of work studying false information (perception, propagation, detection/containment, politics) and where are the gaps?
• RQ4 How does false information manifest and propagate differently in political contexts compared to other types?

Key findings

• Eight types of false information are identified and categorized: Fabricated, Propaganda, Conspiracy Theories, Hoaxes, Biased/one-sided, Rumors, Clickbait, and Satire News.
• A diverse set of actors diffuse false information, including Bots, Criminal/Terrorist Organizations, Activist/Political Organizations, Governments, Hidden Paid Posters, State-sponsored Trolls, Journalists, Useful Idiots, True Believers, and Trolls.
• Motives behind false information include Malicious Intent, Influence, Sow Discord, Profit, Passion, and Fun.
• The paper summarizes multiple studies on user perception across platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and others) and methods (data analysis, questionnaires, crowdsourcing).
• Propagation studies are categorized by platforms (Twitter, Facebook, others) and by approaches (epidemic/statistical modeling, data analysis, and systems for visualization).
• The authors emphasize the political domain as especially impactful and review related work, outlining the need for further research and mitigation strategies.