The Web Centipede: Understanding How Web Communities Influence Each Other Through the Lens of Mainstream and Alternative News Sources
Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, Emiliano De Cristofaro and, Nicolas Kourtellis, Ilias Leontiadis, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca, Stringhini, Jeremy Blackburn

TL;DR
This study analyzes how mainstream and alternative news sources spread across Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan, revealing that fringe communities significantly influence mainstream social media and the broader web.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive analysis of news flow between major social platforms, highlighting the influence of fringe communities on mainstream information dissemination.
Findings
Alt-right communities influence Twitter significantly
Fringe communities propagate alternative news widely
Mainstream and alternative news flows are interconnected
Abstract
As the number and the diversity of news outlets on the Web grow, so does the opportunity for "alternative" sources of information to emerge. Using large social networks like Twitter and Facebook, misleading, false, or agenda-driven information can quickly and seamlessly spread online, deceiving people or influencing their opinions. Also, the increased engagement of tightly knit communities, such as Reddit and 4chan, further compounds the problem, as their users initiate and propagate alternative information, not only within their own communities, but also to different ones as well as various social media. In fact, these platforms have become an important piece of the modern information ecosystem, which, thus far, has not been studied as a whole. In this paper, we begin to fill this gap by studying mainstream and alternative news shared on Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan. By analyzing…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMisinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics · Complex Network Analysis Techniques
