The web centipede

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 millions of posts around several axes, we measure how mainstream and alternative news flows between these platforms. Our results indicate that alt-right communities within 4chan and Reddit can have a surprising level of influence on Twitter, providing evidence that "fringe" communities often succeed in spreading alternative news to mainstream social networks and the greater Web.

Auditing radicalization pathways on YouTube

“…Across the globe, individuals are skeptical of traditional media vehicles and growingly consume news and opinion content on social media [22,31]. In this setting, recent research has shown that fringe websites (like 4chan) and subreddits (like /r/TheDonald) have great influence over which memes [44] and news [45] are shared in large social networks, such as Twitter. YouTube is extremely popular, especially among children and teenagers [7], and, if the streaming website is actually radicalizing individuals, this can push fringe ideologies like white supremacy further into the mainstream [42].…”

Research note: The spread of political misinformation on online subcultural platforms

“…Our study focuses on the circulation of misinformation on two subcultural platforms that gained attention for spreading misinformation during the latter stages of the 2016 U.S. election: 4chan and Reddit. We chose 4chan and Reddit for our study because their oppositional subculture, oriented around "keeping alive […] the original spirit of the web" (Tuters 2019), has been credited with the rise of the so-called "alt-right" and the perpetuation of political misinformation (Zannettou et al, 2017;Hagen, Burton et. al., 2019;Issawi, 2019;Ehrenkranz, 2017).…”

Disinformation by Design: The Use of Evidence Collages and Platform Filtering in a Media Manipulation Campaign

“…Open web forums are often used as basecamps for coordinating and planning disinformation campaigns. Both Zannettou et al (2017) and Marwick and Lewis (2017) identify 4chan's image boards as a source of disinformation that propagates to other platforms. Marwick and Lewis state:…”