False Information, Bots and Malicious Campaigns: Demystifying Elements of Social Media Manipulations

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of social media manipulation, focusing on false information, bots, and malicious campaigns, highlighting gaps and guiding future research to enhance platform integrity.

Contribution

It synthesizes diverse research elements into a unified framework, emphasizing the interconnectedness of manipulation tactics and user psychology, which was overlooked in prior studies.

Findings

Identified commonalities among manipulation elements

Highlighted gaps in current research on user psychology and bot tactics

Recommended interdisciplinary approaches for future studies

Abstract

The rapid spread of false information and persistent manipulation attacks on online social networks (OSNs), often for political, ideological, or financial gain, has affected the openness of OSNs. While researchers from various disciplines have investigated different manipulation-triggering elements of OSNs (such as understanding information diffusion on OSNs or detecting automated behavior of accounts), these works have not been consolidated to present a comprehensive overview of the interconnections among these elements. Notably, user psychology, the prevalence of bots, and their tactics in relation to false information detection have been overlooked in previous research. To address this research gap, this paper synthesizes insights from various disciplines to provide a comprehensive analysis of the manipulation landscape. By integrating the primary elements of social media manipulation (SMM), including false information, bots, and malicious campaigns, we extensively examine each SMM element. Through a systematic investigation of prior research, we identify commonalities, highlight existing gaps, and extract valuable insights in the field. Our findings underscore the urgent need for interdisciplinary research to effectively combat social media manipulations, and our systematization can guide future research efforts and assist OSN providers in ensuring the safety and integrity of their platforms.