SaTC: CORE: Small: NSF-DST: Understanding Network Structure and Communication for Supporting Information Authenticity

This project tackles the challenge of helping people who are seeking accurate information, trustworthy advice, and helpful support and services for their personally relevant concerns online. The online information ecosystem is so large and complex, and the threat of scams and inauthentic material is so advanced, that it is sometimes difficult for people to trust what they see online, which in turn is affecting the trustworthiness of critical and longstanding institutions of our society. This project's goal is fundamental research to investigate and construct a framework for ultimately helping people find and share safe, useful, and trustworthy information in cyberspace. The framework will include tools for identifying original sources and authentic information. This project includes investigations of social network information sharing online. The project is studying audience resilience using inoculation theory and leveraging peer networks for authenticity dissemination. The project also includes vulnerability assessment models to identify the most effective labeling measures and the individuals and communities most in need of support of their information needs. The planned framework focuses on utilizing social network structures rather than specific content types. Ultimately, the project aims to enhance the strength of the online information ecosystem by leveraging computational methods and network analysis techniques. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.