BITS Pilani studied ways in which wrong information gets diffused online
Picture used for representational purpose. (Photo: PTI/File)
Hyderabad: Misinformation spread deliberately through social media networks can change people’s behaviour according to a new study. Researchers from the BITS Pilani, Hyderabad say that people’s blind faith in information disbursed on the Internet and social media sites makes them vulnerable to exploitation.
Social media networking sites have helped change people’s behaviour like never before and hence it is an easy medium to spread false information. The pace at which information is disseminated through social media is unparalleled, making it difficult to stop unless steps are taken on time.
Researchers from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, studied ways in which wrong information gets diffused online and the challenges posed by Internet.
Dr G. Geethakumari, assistant professor, department of computer science and doctoral student K.P. Krishna Kumar, published their findings in the International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems. Scientists argue that the faith that people have in information obtained online is so implicit that it can be counterproductive and even used to target organisations. They called such attacks as “semantic attacks” and regarded them as the soft underbelly of the Internet.
Researchers combined concepts from cognitive psychology and computer science to propose a methodology to detect such malicious campaigns.
According to the study, social networks have added to the challenge of preventing misinformation. “A semantic attack in which misinformation is deliberately seeded into a social network to affect the behaviour of the maximum number of people possible has only recently emerged as a troubling concept,” researchers explained.
They cited examples of a mass exodus from an Asian nation due to fears of swine flu from a rumour online. Even last year, there was a mass exodus of people from the northeast from Hyderabad, Pune and other cities after inflammatory messages spread through social media like wildfire.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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