CHARACTERIZING ATTENTION CASCADES IN WHATSAPP GROUPS Josemar Alves Caetano, Gabriel Magno, Marcos Gonçalves, Jussara Almeida, Humberto T. Marques-Neto, Virgílio Almeida
WebSci 2019 2 Messenger apps popularity App Total users WhatsApp 1.6 bi Facebook Messenger 1.3 bi WeChat 1.1 bi Line 700 mi Telegram 200 mi
WebSci 2019 3 WhatsApp, politics and misinformation May 2018 October 2018
WebSci 2019 4 Initial question What are the ingredients of the WhatsApp architecture that makes it a weaponizable social media platform to distribute misinformation?
WebSci 2019 5 Information cascades and attention economy
WebSci 2019 6 Attention cascade example
WebSci 2019 7 Research questions • How different are attention cascades in political and nonpolitical groups on WhatsApp? • What is the impact of false information on the characteristics of attention cascades?
WebSci 2019 8 Studying attention cascades on WhatsApp using 3 dimensions User Structural Temporal participation • Number of • Duration • Unique users nodes • Structural • Relationships • Depth characteristics motifs • Maximum over time breadth • Structural Virality
WebSci 2019 9 Data collection and anonymization 1 2 3 Join groups and Anonymize dataset Find Brazilian group extract messages links on the Internet
WebSci 2019 10 WhatsApp dataset # of messages 1.7 mi # of users 31 k # of groups 120
WebSci 2019 11 Group and cascade classification With Falsehood Political Political Unclassified Group Cascade Non- With political Falsehood Non- political Unclassified
WebSci 2019 12 We used six Brazilian fact-checking websites
WebSci 2019 13 Overall cascade analysis
WebSci 2019 14 Structural characteristics (I)
WebSci 2019 15 Structural characteristics (II)
WebSci 2019 16 Temporal characteristics
WebSci 2019 17 Cascade duration and unique users
WebSci 2019 18 User participation motifs
WebSci 2019 19 Present and future work • What kind of content would extend the duration of attention cascades? • What is an adequate metric for quantifying attention in a group chat? • What is the impact of hate content on the characteristics of attention cascades?
WebSci 2019 20 Thank you! josemarcaetano@dcc.ufmg.br
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