Indian scientists explain how 'misinformation' spreads online

Indian scientists have come up with a model to explain how the spread of false information online takes place.

Krishna Kumar and G. Geethakumari from BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, in Andhra Pradesh, India, described how people were increasingly reliant on information obtained from online sources, and said that the implicit faith in the validity of that information could be counterproductive and could make some people and organizations vulnerable to exploitation. The team referred to this as a 'semantic attack' and regards it as the 'soft underbelly of the internet'.

The team suggests that online social networks have added an additional layer of challenges for the detection of such semantic attacks above the conventional world-wide web and other internet services. As such, the rate of diffusion of misinformation can be very rapid as evidenced by recent events driven by panic spreading online regarding so-called 'swine' flu in 2009 and a mass exodus from an Asian nation also driven by unnecessary online panic.

As with the transfer of information through any network, the nodes (the users in a social network) and how they are connected to each other is also critical to the diffusion of misinformation. For example, friendship links on Facebook and the follower/followee relationship on Twitter affect the impact and reach of given updates on those services from particular users.

The concept of a semantic attack, in which misinformation is deliberately seeded into a social network with the aim of affecting the behavior of the maximum number of people possible, has only recently emerged as a troubling concept that requires detailed study. While there are firewalls, antivirus programs and other technological diagnostics and defenses to ward off attacks on servers, operating systems and software, defending against the impact of a semantic attack on human emotions and behavior is an entirely different matter.