An Anonymous Social Network of Opinions

TL;DR

This paper introduces an anonymous social network platform designed to study how anonymity influences bias, equality, information flow, and network structure, addressing overlooked aspects of online social interactions.

Contribution

It proposes a novel anonymous social network model enabling detailed analysis of anonymity's effects on social dynamics and network properties.

Findings

Framework for analyzing anonymity's impact on bias and equality

Insights into information propagation in anonymous networks

Potential for monitoring and data analysis of social interactions

Abstract

Research interest on Online Social Networks (OSNs), has increased dramatically over the last decade, mainly because online networks provide a vast source of social information. Graph structure, user connections, growth, information exposure and diffusion, are some of the most frequently researched subjects. However, some areas of these networks, such as anonymity, equality and bias are overlooked or even unconsidered. In the related bibliography, such features seem to be influential to social interactions. Based on these studies, we aim at determining how universal anonymity affects bias, user equality, information propagation, sharing and exposure, connection establishment, as well as network structure. Thus, we propose a new Anonymous Online Social Network, which will facilitate a variety of monitoring and data analysis.