Questions for Sandra Gonzáles-Bailón's talk on "The Diffusion and Reach of Information on Social Media".

[jamesallenevans]

Share your questions regarding the 2/15 talk by Sandra Gonzáles-Bailón about The Diffusion and Reach of Information on Social Media. Social media create the possibility for rapid, viral spread of content. We analyze the virality of and exposure to information on Facebook during the US 2020 Presidential election by examining the diffusion trees of the approximately 1B posts that were reshared at least once by US-based adults (from July 1 2020 to February 1 2021). Only N ∼ 12.1 million posts (1.2%) were reshared more than 100 times, involving N ∼ 114 million adult U.S. users and accumulating ∼ 55% of all views. We differentiate broadcasting versus peer-to-peer diffusion to show that: (1) Facebook is predominantly a broadcasting (rather than viral) medium of exposure; (2) Pages (not Groups) are the key engine for high-reach broadcasting; (3) misinformation (as identified by Meta’s Third Party Fact Checkers) reverses these trends: this type of content relies on viral spread through long, narrow, and slower chains of resharing activity; and (4) a very small minority of users (older and more conservative) power the spread of misinformation, triggering very deep cascades that accumulate large numbers of views. The paper will be shared by email (or by request to jevans@uchicago.edu), but cannot be posted online.

[iefis]

Thank you for sharing your research! I would like to know if it is possible to identify specific attributes of the information transmission channels (Pages, Groups, user's feed) that would be key to forming different diffusion modes.

[icarlous]

Engaging research! How do the propagation patterns of error messages on Facebook diverge from those observed in previous studies on Twitter? Do these disparities reflect fundamental differences in algorithms and user behaviors between these distinct social media platforms?

[Pritam0705]

Thank you for sharing your research. The misinformation topic is exciting to learn more about because of the digital era we are living in. Nowadays most people are consuming news through social media platforms like Twitter, I think it is challenging for the platforms to come up with some technologies to detect and mitigate misinformation because of the large-scale nature of such platforms. I am curious and want to know your thoughts on the self-bias of an individual which comes from the ideological beliefs he/she believes in while reading and sharing the news. Will digital literacy help in mitigating the consumption of misinformation, if yes then who is responsible for conducting digital literacy? How will you define the behavior of individuals who without reading the news tend to share them directly because of their biasedness towards the source?

[Aiwen-Xiao]

Hello Professor Sandra, thank you for your research! It sparked my curiosity about the practical aspects of working with social media data. Could you elaborate more on the specific characteristics and behaviors of users who significantly contribute to the spread of misinformation?

[oliang2000]

Fascinating analysis! I'm curious if the variation in information/misinformation reach on Facebook versus other platforms is primarily due to differences in users or algorithms.

[Ry-Wu]

Hi Professor Gonzáles-Bailón, Thank you for sharing your interesting research! I wonder how can we detect and break echo chambers and what can platforms do to prevent the formation of echo chambers? Looking forward to your presentation!

[jinyz1220]

Thank you for sharing your inspiring work! My question is: is it possible to intervene or even cut off the viral diffusion as soon as someone in the connected network detect the misinformation?

[aliceluo1]

Thank you so much for sharing your amazing work! Considering the insights you've gained, could you delve deeper into the factors that contribute to the success of misinformation in triggering deep cascades and accumulating large numbers of views, particularly focusing on the characteristics and behaviors of the minority of users who power its spread? Additionally, how might platforms like Facebook mitigate the amplification of misinformation by targeting these influential users while still preserving the principles of free expression and open discourse?

[lim1an]

Can you elaborate on the concept of diffusion trees and how they reveal insights into the patterns of information dissemination on social media platforms like Facebook?

[rammkripa]

Thank you for sharing your work. I was wondering whether the 'diffusion tree' approach to understanding the spread of content can capture the amplification produced by reinforcement (like a cycle in the graph of diffusion, if someone sees content similar to what they posted, they are more likely to share more such content) ?

[Daniela-miaut]

What is your opinion on theorizing the sociology or political science of social media based on computational findings? Should we be do theories based on mathematical models, or should we extract none-mathematical meanings or interpretations from these models?

[YucanLei]

‘(2) Pages (not Groups) are the key engine for high-reach broadcasting; (3) misinformation (as identified by Meta’s Third Party Fact Checkers) reverses these trends: this type of content relies on viral spread through long, narrow, and slower chains of resharing activity’ This part rather bothers me. Information, whether correctly or not, I believe should theoretically be spreading in the same way. In other words, why would the misinformation be spreading with resharing whereas others can be spread with pages?

[Yuxin-Ji]

Thanks for sharing your work! The findings on broadcast vs. viral diffusion is very interesting. Do you think these findings could help us better understand the dynamics and diffusion patterns in the upcoming election?

[QichangZheng]

Hello Professor Sandra, thank you for sharing your research with us! Your work has piqued my interest in how social media data is used to understand misinformation spread. Could you provide insights into the characteristics and behaviors of users who play a significant role in disseminating misinformation? Additionally, I'm curious about the role of diffusion trees in mapping out the patterns of information spread on platforms like Facebook. Furthermore, considering the influence of the platform's own strategies and technological frameworks in countering misinformation, how do these factors affect the findings of such research? How do researchers account for the platform's mediation effects in their studies?

[binyu0419]

Thank you for sharing! my question is: how might this understanding be leveraged to design more effective interventions or algorithms to curb the spread of misinformation on social media platforms?

[kangyic]

First of all, thank you for sharing your research! My question is less relevant to the research itself. I was curious how to talk big tech like Facebook to share data. How would the results of information diffusion research lead to better management and improvement of Facebook?

[66Alexa]

Thanks for your share that offers a comprehensive analysis of how information spreads on platforms like Facebook, especially in the context of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election! My questions are: How does misinformation differ in its spread dynamics compared to accurate information? What makes the chains of re-sharing for misinformation "long, narrow, and slower"? How was misinformation identified and categorized by Meta’s Third Party Fact Checkers?

[mingxuan-he]

Thank you for the great research related to the 2020 presidential election! In the context of the upcoming election, are you aware of any suggested / already implemented changes by social media platforms to combat the spread of misinformation on their platforms? Is there mechanisms that hold the platforms accountable for the misinformation, give that the corporations behind them are profiting heavily off of user-generated content?

[WonjeYun]

Thank you for sharing the research. I am curious if this research can be used to detect false information, based on it's pattern of spreading?

[Brian-W00]

Given the study showing false information on Facebook about the US 2020 Presidential election spreads in viral, slow ways, especially among older and more conservative people, how does this spreading way make it hard to fight fake news on social media? What does this mean for creating better ways to stop false information from getting around?

[boki2924]

You differentiate between broadcasting and peer-to-peer diffusion on Facebook. Could you elaborate on the characteristics of each diffusion type and how they contribute to overall exposure to information on the platform?

[xinyi030]

Thanks for sharing your work! Given the comprehensive analysis on the diffusion and reach of information on Facebook during a pivotal election period, highlighting the differences in virality, exposure, and the influence of misinformation, I'm curious about the implications of your findings for the design and policy of social media platforms. Specifically, how do you believe social media platforms should adjust their algorithms or policies to mitigate the spread of misinformation while promoting a healthy digital information ecosystem?

[yiang-li]

Thanks for giving the talk! I have a question regarding your finding that misinformation tends to spread through viral means more than legitimate information: what do you think are the mechanisms or characteristics of misinformation that contribute to this trend? Is it the emotional content, the novelty, or some other factor that drives this differential spread?

[cty20010831]

Thanks for sharing! I am wondering how does the structure of diffusion networks on Facebook—particularly the distinction between broadcasting and viral spread mechanisms—impact the effectiveness of countermeasures against misinformation? Specifically, can understanding the unique propagation patterns of misinformation, as outlined in your findings, inform more targeted and effective strategies for social media platforms and policymakers to mitigate the spread of false information?

[Yunrui11]

Your research on the diffusion and reach of information on social media, particularly during the US 2020 Presidential election, provides valuable insights. I'm curious, how do you think these findings could inform strategies for mitigating the spread of misinformation and promoting more accurate information on social media platforms?

[schen115]

Thanks for your sharing! I was wondering how might policymakers and social media platforms enhance transparency and accountability in content dissemination to mitigate the potential influence of misinformation and ensure a more balanced flow of information?

[Adrianne-Li]

Thank you, Professor Gonzáles-Bailón, for your research on social media's role in information spread during the US 2020 Presidential election. Your findings on misinformation spread are particularly intriguing. I wonder, did your study consider how Facebook's algorithms might influence the spread of misinformation compared to factual content? How do these algorithmic preferences shape our strategies for fighting misinformation on platforms like Facebook?

[erikaz1]

Regarding the finding that trees identified as misinformation are deeper and have higher virality scores compared to non-misinformation trees, did this comparison to non-misinformation trees only involve the politics subset, or all non-misinformation trees? If so, would it be possible to detect misinformation threads simply from recording tree shape, controlling for tree size?

[Huiyu1999]

The study highlights that misinformation tends to rely on viral spread through long, narrow, and slower chains of resharing activity, which contrasts with the predominantly broadcasting nature of factual content dissemination. Considering the temporal aspect of misinformation spread, especially in the context of critical events like elections, what are the temporal dynamics of misinformation spread compared to fact-checked or verified information? Specifically, how does the speed and reach of misinformation diffusion before, during, and after key electoral milestones compare to factual content, and what implications does this have for the timing and strategy of fact-checking interventions?

[YutaoHeOVO]

Thank you for your presentation. I am curious of the other side of the research project: indeed, we observe different diffusion patterns of information (especially for misinformation). Could it be the case that there are more endogenous traits of these misinformation threads leading to such viral diffusion pattern? And even if the normal threads also have such traits, we can also expect viral diffusion. Could we further disentangle the traits of these threads and find the reason why such diffusion pattern will exist?

[MaxwelllzZ]

Thank you for sharing. It was wonderful.

I am curious that, in light of the findings in the paper that Pages, rather than Groups, are the main drivers for high-reach broadcasting on Facebook, how should this shape our understanding of influence dynamics on social networks, particularly in political contexts?

[Kevin2330]

Dear Professor Gonzàles-Bailòn,

Thank you for sharing! You identify a very small minority of users, who are older and more conservative, as the main spreaders of misinformation. What methods were used to analyze the demographic characteristics of these users, and how do these characteristics influence the depth and reach of cascades they trigger?

[ZenthiaSong]

Thanks for giving the talk! What policy measures or regulatory frameworks do you recommend to help mitigate the negative impacts of misinformation while preserving the benefits of social media for democratic engagement?