Blog
Identifying and characterizing superspreaders of low-credibility content on Twitter
Our latest paper "Identifying and characterizing superspreaders of low-credibility content on Twitter" by DeVerna, Aiyappa, Pacheco, Bryden, and Menczer was published in PLOS ONE. The world’s digital information ecosystem continues to struggle with the spread of misinformation. Prior work has su...
Introducing Botometer X
The original Botometer website was disabled after Twitter (now X) suspended free access to their data for researchers. However, there is still a need for bot detection. So we decided to revive the tool even if it only has minimal functionality compared with the original Botometer. To differentiate t...
OSoMe Report 2022-2023
Our third OSoMe annual report highlights the many activities of the Observatory during the academic year 2022-2023, roughly, as well as updates on the growing OSoMe team.
Anatomy of an AI-powered malicious social botnet
A preprint of the paper titled “Anatomy of an AI-powered malicious social botnet” by Yang and Menczer was posted on arXiv. Concerns have been raised that large language models (LLMs) could be utilized to produce fake content with a deceptive intention, although evidence thus far remains anecdotal....
Addressing the harms of AI-generated inauthentic content
AI lowers the cost of generating false but credible content at scale, defeating the already weak moderation defenses of social media platforms. How much of this junk is out there already? Read some research ideas in "Addressing the harms of AI-generated inauthentic content" at doi:10.1038/s42256...
Top FIBers dashboard tracks superspreaders of low-credibility information online
Social media superspreaders have the ability to rapidly disseminate information, regardless of its veracity. This means they can influence consequential conversations — for better or worse — related to elections, public health and social issues. With the goal of tracking superspreaders that are di...
Influencing Policy and Research: Paper on Vaccine Hesitancy Finds a Place in the President's Economic Report
We are thrilled to share the news that our paper "Online Misinformation is Linked to Early COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy and Refusal" has been included in the 2023 Economic Report of the U.S. President. Adding to its accolades, this paper has also been recognized by Scientific Reports as one of...
OSoMe, IUNI, and CNetS to present 51 papers at upcoming conferences
We’re excited to announce that researchers at the Observatory on Social Media, the IU Network Science Institute, and the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research will present 51 papers at various conferences over the summer. Network Science Conference (NetSci) Oral presentations...
A MUST for all Musks: How science can guide effective social media regulation
In October 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter, declaring that "the bird is freed" and that freedom of expression would be a priority on his platform. Although little is known about Musk's understanding of free speech, many feared that his policies would lead to a neglect in the moderation of harmful...
OSoMe researchers develop new dashboard to track midterm election information across social media
Misleading claims about elections create serious challenges for election officials, social media companies, journalists, and voters. The Observatory on Social Media (OSoMe) at Indiana University has launched a new dashboard focused on the 2022 US midterm elections. The US Midterm Elections 2022...
