Locating privileged spreaders on an Online Social Network

TL;DR

This paper investigates how certain users in online social networks act as privileged spreaders during information diffusion, using complex network analysis of a political protest in Spain to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a method to identify privileged spreaders in OSNs based on real data and complex network theory, focusing on a political protest case study.

Findings

Identifies key users with privileged spreading capabilities.

Analyzes the network structure during a political protest.

Provides insights into the dynamics of information diffusion.

Abstract

Social media have provided plentiful evidence of their capacity for information diffusion. Fads and rumors, but also social unrest and riots travel fast and affect large fractions of the population participating in online social networks (OSNs). This has spurred much research regarding the mechanisms that underlie social contagion, and also who (if any) can unleash system-wide information dissemination. Access to real data, both regarding topology --the network of friendships-- and dynamics --the actual way in which OSNs users interact--, is crucial to decipher how the former facilitates the latter's success, understood as efficiency in information spreading. With the quantitative analysis that stems from complex network theory, we discuss who (and why) has privileged spreading capabilities when it comes to information diffusion. This is done considering the evolution of an episode of political protest which took place in Spain, spanning one month in 2011.