Detecting Inactive Cyberwarriors from Online Forums

TL;DR

This paper investigates the activity patterns of cyberwarriors in online forums, revealing most are inactive during peacetime and highlighting the difficulty of detecting inactive cyberwarriors compared to active ones.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of cyberwarrior activity levels and discusses methods for detecting inactive cyberwarriors, which is more challenging than identifying active ones.

Findings

Most cyberwarriors are inactive during peacetime

Detecting inactive cyberwarriors is more difficult than detecting active ones

The study provides potential methods for identifying inactive cyberwarriors

Abstract

The proliferation of misinformation has emerged as a new form of warfare in the information age. This type of warfare involves cyberwarriors, who deliberately propagate messages aimed at defaming opponents or fostering unity among allies. In this study, we investigate the level of activity exhibited by cyberwarriors within a large online forum, and remarkably, we discover that only a minute fraction of cyberwarriors are active users. Surprisingly, despite their expected role of actively disseminating misinformation, cyberwarriors remain predominantly silent during peacetime and only spring into action when necessary. Moreover, we analyze the challenges associated with identifying cyberwarriors and provide evidence that detecting inactive cyberwarriors is considerably more challenging than identifying their active counterparts. Finally, we discuss potential methodologies to more effectively identify cyberwarriors during their inactive phases, offering insights into better capturing their presence and actions. The experimental code is released for reproducibility: \url{https://github.com/Ryaninthegame/Detect-Inactive-Spammers-on-PTT}.