Fake News Detection on Social Media: A Data Mining Perspective
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors presented a comprehensive review of detecting fake news on social media, including fake news characterizations on psychology and social theories, existing algorithms from a data mining perspective, evaluation metrics and representative datasets.
Abstract: Social media for news consumption is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, its low cost, easy access, and rapid dissemination of information lead people to seek out and consume news from social media. On the other hand, it enables the wide spread of \fake news", i.e., low quality news with intentionally false information. The extensive spread of fake news has the potential for extremely negative impacts on individuals and society. Therefore, fake news detection on social media has recently become an emerging research that is attracting tremendous attention. Fake news detection on social media presents unique characteristics and challenges that make existing detection algorithms from traditional news media ine ective or not applicable. First, fake news is intentionally written to mislead readers to believe false information, which makes it difficult and nontrivial to detect based on news content; therefore, we need to include auxiliary information, such as user social engagements on social media, to help make a determination. Second, exploiting this auxiliary information is challenging in and of itself as users' social engagements with fake news produce data that is big, incomplete, unstructured, and noisy. Because the issue of fake news detection on social media is both challenging and relevant, we conducted this survey to further facilitate research on the problem. In this survey, we present a comprehensive review of detecting fake news on social media, including fake news characterizations on psychology and social theories, existing algorithms from a data mining perspective, evaluation metrics and representative datasets. We also discuss related research areas, open problems, and future research directions for fake news detection on social media.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: The proposed model (DeepFakE) outperforms with the existing fake news detection methods by applying deep learning on combined news content and social context-based features as an echo-chamber.
Abstract: Social media platforms have simplified the sharing of information, which includes news as well, as compared to traditional ways. The ease of access and sharing the data with the revolution in mobile technology has led to the proliferation of fake news. Fake news has the potential to manipulate public opinions and hence, may harm society. Thus, it is necessary to examine the credibility and authenticity of the news articles being shared on social media. Nowadays, the problem of fake news has gained massive attention from research communities and needed an optimal solution with high efficiency and low efficacy. Existing detection methods are based on either news-content or social-context using user-based features as an individual. In this paper, the content of the news article and the existence of echo chambers (community of social media-based users sharing the same opinions) in the social network are taken into account for fake news detection. A tensor representing social context (correlation between user profiles on social media and news articles) is formed by combining the news, user and community information. The news content is fused with the tensor, and coupled matrix-tensor factorization is employed to get a representation of both news content and social context. The proposed method has been tested on a real-world dataset: BuzzFeed. The factors obtained after decomposition have been used as features for news classification. An ensemble machine learning classifier (XGBoost) and a deep neural network model (DeepFakE) are employed for the task of classification. Our proposed model (DeepFakE) outperforms with the existing fake news detection methods by applying deep learning on combined news content and social context-based features as an echo-chamber.
64 citations
TL;DR: It is found that layperson cognitive reflection, political knowledge, and Democratic Party preference are positively related to agreement with fact-checker ratings; and that informing laypeople of each headline’s publisher leads to a small increase in agreement with Fact Checkers.
Abstract: Professional fact-checking, a prominent approach to combating misinformation, does not scale easily. Furthermore, some distrust fact-checkers because of alleged liberal bias. We explore a solution ...
63 citations
26 Jun 2019
TL;DR: Analysis of messages shared on a number of political-oriented WhatsApp groups, focusing on textual content, revealed that textual messages with misinformation tend to be concentrated on fewer topics, often carrying words related to the cognitive process of insight, which characterizes chain messages.
Abstract: Whatsapp is a messenger app that is currently very popular around the world. With a user-friendly interface, it allows people to instantaneously exchange messages in a very intuitive and fluid way. The app also allows people to interact using group chats, sharing messages, videos, audios, and images. These groups can also be a fertile ground to spread rumors and misinformation. In this work, we analyzed the messages shared on a number of political-oriented WhatsApp groups, focusing on textual content, as it is the most shared media type. Our study relied on a dataset containing all textual messages shared in those groups during the 2018 Brazilian presidential campaign. We identified the presence of misinformation in the contents of these messages using a dataset of priorly checked misinformation from six Brazilian fact-checking sites. Our study aims at identifying characteristics that distinguish such messages from the other textual messages (with unchecked content). To that end, we analyzed various properties of the textual content (e.g., language usage, main topics and sentiment of message's content) and propagation dynamics of both sets of messages. Our analyses revealed that textual messages with misinformation tend to be concentrated on fewer topics, often carrying words related to the cognitive process of insight, which characterizes chain messages. We also found that their propagation process is much more viral with a distinct behavior: they tend to propagate faster within particular groups but take longer to cross group boundaries.
62 citations
TL;DR: This article study the different uses of sentiment analysis in the detection of fake news, with a discussion of the most relevant elements and shortcomings, and the requirements that should be met in the near future, such as multilingualism, explainability, mitigation of biases, or treatment of multimedia elements.
Abstract: In recent years, we have witnessed a rise in fake news, i.e., provably false pieces of information created with the intention of deception. The dissemination of this type of news poses a serious threat to cohesion and social well-being, since it fosters political polarization and the distrust of people with respect to their leaders. The huge amount of news that is disseminated through social media makes manual verification unfeasible, which has promoted the design and implementation of automatic systems for fake news detection. The creators of fake news use various stylistic tricks to promote the success of their creations, with one of them being to excite the sentiments of the recipients. This has led to sentiment analysis, the part of text analytics in charge of determining the polarity and strength of sentiments expressed in a text, to be used in fake news detection approaches, either as a basis of the system or as a complementary element. In this article, we study the different uses of sentiment analysis in the detection of fake news, with a discussion of the most relevant elements and shortcomings, and the requirements that should be met in the near future, such as multilingualism, explainability, mitigation of biases, or treatment of multimedia elements.
61 citations
TL;DR: This work collects the various implicit and explicit disinformation typologies proposed by scholars and proposes three independent dimensions with controlled values per dimension as categorization criteria for all types of disinformation.
Abstract: The scale, volume, and distribution speed of disinformation raise concerns in governments, businesses, and citizens. To respond effectively to this problem, we first need to disambiguate, understan...
61 citations
References
More filters
[...]
TL;DR: Deep learning is making major advances in solving problems that have resisted the best attempts of the artificial intelligence community for many years, and will have many more successes in the near future because it requires very little engineering by hand and can easily take advantage of increases in the amount of available computation and data.
Abstract: Deep learning allows computational models that are composed of multiple processing layers to learn representations of data with multiple levels of abstraction. These methods have dramatically improved the state-of-the-art in speech recognition, visual object recognition, object detection and many other domains such as drug discovery and genomics. Deep learning discovers intricate structure in large data sets by using the backpropagation algorithm to indicate how a machine should change its internal parameters that are used to compute the representation in each layer from the representation in the previous layer. Deep convolutional nets have brought about breakthroughs in processing images, video, speech and audio, whereas recurrent nets have shone light on sequential data such as text and speech.
46,982 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a critique of expected utility theory as a descriptive model of decision making under risk, and develop an alternative model, called prospect theory, in which value is assigned to gains and losses rather than to final assets and in which probabilities are replaced by decision weights.
Abstract: This paper presents a critique of expected utility theory as a descriptive model of decision making under risk, and develops an alternative model, called prospect theory. Choices among risky prospects exhibit several pervasive effects that are inconsistent with the basic tenets of utility theory. In particular, people underweight outcomes that are merely probable in comparison with outcomes that are obtained with certainty. This tendency, called the certainty effect, contributes to risk aversion in choices involving sure gains and to risk seeking in choices involving sure losses. In addition, people generally discard components that are shared by all prospects under consideration. This tendency, called the isolation effect, leads to inconsistent preferences when the same choice is presented in different forms. An alternative theory of choice is developed, in which value is assigned to gains and losses rather than to final assets and in which probabilities are replaced by decision weights. The value function is normally concave for gains, commonly convex for losses, and is generally steeper for losses than for gains. Decision weights are generally lower than the corresponding probabilities, except in the range of low prob- abilities. Overweighting of low probabilities may contribute to the attractiveness of both insurance and gambling. EXPECTED UTILITY THEORY has dominated the analysis of decision making under risk. It has been generally accepted as a normative model of rational choice (24), and widely applied as a descriptive model of economic behavior, e.g. (15, 4). Thus, it is assumed that all reasonable people would wish to obey the axioms of the theory (47, 36), and that most people actually do, most of the time. The present paper describes several classes of choice problems in which preferences systematically violate the axioms of expected utility theory. In the light of these observations we argue that utility theory, as it is commonly interpreted and applied, is not an adequate descriptive model and we propose an alternative account of choice under risk. 2. CRITIQUE
35,067 citations
27,773 citations
09 Jan 2004
TL;DR: A theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory is presented in this article. But the analysis is limited to the case where the salient dimensions of the intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
Abstract: This chapter presents an outline of a theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory. Much of the work on the social psychology of intergroup relations has focused on patterns of individual prejudices and discrimination and on the motivational sequences of interpersonal interaction. The intensity of explicit intergroup conflicts of interests is closely related in human cultures to the degree of opprobrium attached to the notion of "renegade" or "traitor." The basic and highly reliable finding is that the trivial, ad hoc intergroup categorization leads to in-group favoritism and discrimination against the out-group. Many orthodox definitions of "social groups" are unduly restrictive when applied to the context of intergroup relations. The equation of social competition and intergroup conflict rests on the assumptions concerning an "ideal type" of social stratification in which the salient dimensions of intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
14,812 citations
TL;DR: Cumulative prospect theory as discussed by the authors applies to uncertain as well as to risky prospects with any number of outcomes, and it allows different weighting functions for gains and for losses, and two principles, diminishing sensitivity and loss aversion, are invoked to explain the characteristic curvature of the value function and the weighting function.
Abstract: We develop a new version of prospect theory that employs cumulative rather than separable decision weights and extends the theory in several respects. This version, called cumulative prospect theory, applies to uncertain as well as to risky prospects with any number of outcomes, and it allows different weighting functions for gains and for losses. Two principles, diminishing sensitivity and loss aversion, are invoked to explain the characteristic curvature of the value function and the weighting functions. A review of the experimental evidence and the results of a new experiment confirm a distinctive fourfold pattern of risk attitudes: risk aversion for gains and risk seeking for losses of high probability; risk seeking for gains and risk aversion for losses of low probability. Expected utility theory reigned for several decades as the dominant normative and descriptive model of decision making under uncertainty, but it has come under serious question in recent years. There is now general agreement that the theory does not provide an adequate description of individual choice: a substantial body of evidence shows that decision makers systematically violate its basic tenets. Many alternative models have been proposed in response to this empirical challenge (for reviews, see Camerer, 1989; Fishburn, 1988; Machina, 1987). Some time ago we presented a model of choice, called prospect theory, which explained the major violations of expected utility theory in choices between risky prospects with a small number of outcomes (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Tversky and Kahneman, 1986). The key elements of this theory are 1) a value function that is concave for gains, convex for losses, and steeper for losses than for gains,
13,433 citations