Emilio Ferrara | |
---|---|
Nationality | Italian-American |
Known for | Detection of social bots, analysis of misinformation on social media platforms |
Awards | 2016 DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2017 Complex Systems Society Junior Scientific Award, 2019 Viterbi Junior Faculty Research Award, 2022 Research.com Rising Stars of Science |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Messina, TU Wien, Royal Holloway, University of London |
Thesis | Mining and Analysis of Online Social Networks |
Doctoral advisor | Giacomo Fiumara, Alessandro Provetti |
Other advisors | Albert Paccanaro, Georg Gottlob, Filippo Menczer |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Computer Science,Machine Learning,Network Science,Computational Social Science,Data Science |
Institutions | University of Southern California,Indiana University |
Website | www |
Emilio Ferrara is an Italian-American computer scientist,researcher,and professor in the field of data science and social networks. As of 2022,he serves as a Full Professor at the University of Southern California (USC),in the Viterbi School of Engineering [1] and USC Annenberg School for Communication, [2] where he conducts research on computational social science,network science,and machine learning. Ferrara is known for his work in the detection of social bots and the analysis of misinformation on social media platforms. [3]
Emilio Ferrara received his Bachelor's degree,Master's degree,and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Messina. [4] During his doctoral studies,Ferrara spent one semester at the Technical University of Vienna and two semesters at the Royal Holloway,University of London. While a visiting Ph.D. student at the TU Vienna,Ferrara studied data mining in the research group of Professor Georg Gottlob. At Royal Holloway,University of London,he studied machine learning under the supervision of Professor Alberto Paccanaro. [4]
After completing his doctoral studies,Ferrara held various academic positions[ clarification needed ],first at Indiana University and then at the University of Southern California,where,in 2022,he was promoted to Full Professor.
Ferrara's research focuses on computational social science,network science,and machine learning,with an emphasis on understanding and modeling human behavior in online social networks. He has made significant contributions to the areas of social bot detection, [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] political manipulation, [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] the analysis of misinformation, [22] [23] [24] [25] [16] [26] disinformation, [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] and conspiracy theories, [32] [23] [33] [34] [35] the dynamics of emotional contagion on social media platforms, [36] [37] [38] and generative AI bias. [39]
Emilio Ferrara has received numerous awards and honors for his research,including:
Ferrara's research contributed to the understanding of the extent and impact of foreign interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. [44] His paper titled "Social bots distort the 2016 US Presidential election online discussion," which was the only peer-reviewed paper published before the November 8,2016 election,investigated the influence operations carried out by Russia's Internet Research Agency by means of social bots on Twitter. [45]
The paper suggested that social bots had a notable impact on the dynamics of the online conversation surrounding the election,potentially manipulating public opinion and shaping the discourse. This work provided insights into how social bots were utilized as a tool for information warfare and highlighted the potential consequences of their unchecked proliferation on social media platforms.
Ferrara's findings attracted the attention of the US Senate,which cited his research during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. [46] His work contributed to the understanding of the scope and tactics used by foreign actors to sway public opinion and played a role in shaping the response to this challenge to the democratic process.
Ferrara served as an expert trial witness for the Delaware Court of Chancery on the subject of false and spam accounts in the context of the litigation between Twitter and Elon Musk. [44] [47]
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It should not be confused with misinformation,which is false information but is not deliberate. "Fake news" has sometimes been categorized as a type of disinformation,but scholars have advised not using these two terms interchangeably or using "fake news" altogether in academic writing since politicians have weaponized it to describe any unfavorable news coverage or information.
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation,which is deliberately deceptive and propagated information. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source,and so are unreliable and often unverified,but can turn out to be either true or false. However,definitions of the terms might vary between cultural contexts. Even if later retracted,misinformation can continue to influence actions and memory.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a British non-profit organisation with offices in London and Washington,DC. It campaigns for big tech firms to stop providing services to individuals who may promote hate and misinformation,including neo-Nazis and anti-vaccine advocates,and campaigns to restrict media organisations such as The Daily Wire from advertising. CCDH is a member of the Stop Hate For Profit coalition.
Twitter,rebranding to X since July 2023,is an online social media and social networking service operated by the American company X Corp.,the successor of Twitter,Inc. On Twitter,registered users can post texts,images and videos. Users can post (tweet),like,repost,comment and quote posts,and direct message other registered users. Users interact with Twitter through browser or mobile frontend software,or programmatically via its application programming interfaces (APIs).
Philip N. Howard is a sociologist and communication researcher who studies the impact of information technologies on democracy and social inequality. He studies how new information technologies are used in both civic engagement and social control in countries around the world. He is Professor of Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute and Balliol College at the University of Oxford. He was Director of the Oxford Internet Institute from March 2018 to March 26,2021. He is the author of ten books,including New Media Campaigns and The Managed Citizen,The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy,and Pax Technica:How the Internet of Things May Set Us Free or Lock Us Up. His latest book is Lie Machines:How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies,Deceitful Robots,Junk News Operations,and Political Operatives.
A Twitter bot is a type of software bot that controls a Twitter account via the Twitter API. The social bot software may autonomously perform actions such as tweeting,re-tweeting,liking,following,unfollowing,or direct messaging other accounts. The automation of Twitter accounts is governed by a set of automation rules that outline proper and improper uses of automation. Proper usage includes broadcasting helpful information,automatically generating interesting or creative content,and automatically replying to users via direct message. Improper usage includes circumventing API rate limits,violating user privacy,spamming,and sockpuppeting. Twitter bots may be part of a larger botnet. They can be used to influence elections and in misinformation campaigns.
Filippo Menczer is an American and Italian academic. He is a University Distinguished Professor and the Luddy Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at the Luddy School of Informatics,Computing,and Engineering,Indiana University. Menczer is the Director of the Observatory on Social Media,a research center where data scientists and journalists study the role of media and technology in society and build tools to analyze and counter disinformation and manipulation on social media. Menczer holds courtesy appointments in Cognitive Science and Physics,is a founding member and advisory council member of the IU Network Science Institute,a former director the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research,a senior research fellow of the Kinsey Institute,a fellow of the Center for Computer-Mediated Communication,and a former fellow of the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Turin,Italy. In 2020 he was named a Fellow of the ACM.
A troll farm or troll factory is an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making.
A social bot,or also described as a social AI or social algorithm,is a software agent that communicates autonomously on social media. The messages it distributes can be simple and operate in groups and various configurations with partial human control (hybrid) via algorithm. Social bots can also use artificial intelligence and machine learning to express messages in more natural human dialogue.
Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity,or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history,the term "fake news" was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless,the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information. It's also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavourable to them. Further,disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors,particularly during elections. In some definitions,fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine,and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news,researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.
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Fake news in India refers to misinformation or disinformation in the country which is spread through word of mouth and traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos,memes,unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem,with the potential of it resulting in mob violence,as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.
Disinformation attacks involve the intentional dissemination of false information,with an end goal of misleading,confusing,or manipulating an audience. False information that is not intentionally deceptive is referred to as misinformation,although that has also been used as a catch-all term. Disinformation attacks may be executed by political,economic or individual actors to influence state or non-state entities and domestic or foreign populations. These attacks are commonly employed to reshape attitudes and beliefs,drive a particular agenda,or elicit certain actions from a target audience. Tactics include the presentation of incorrect or misleading information,the creation of uncertainty,and the undermining of both correct information and the credibility of information sources.
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Bot Sentinel is a Twitter analytics service founded in 2018 by Christopher Bouzy. It tracks disinformation,inauthentic behavior and targeted harassment on Twitter.