2,973 research outputs found
Social media ecosystem and disinformation. The dynamics of the debate on nuclear energy, radioactive waste and the atomic conflict narrative.
No full textL'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
Regulating Disinformation and Ideological Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Research on the Digital Services Act Implementation
No full textThe introduction of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by the EU marks a fundamental step in the governance of social media platforms, by outlining content-moderation guidelines aimed at preventing disinformation and the systemic risks related to the "business of polarization" for the digital public sphere (Geese, 2023). According to others (Husovec, 2023b), DSA is an ambitious legal framework that must be tamed in consideration of the priorities of different stakeholders: platforms, legislators at the European and national level, journalists responding to the challenges of fact-checking, and citizens entitled to participate in a safe and non-discriminatory public sphere. Thanks to a critical approach (Van Dijck, 2021; Zuboff, 2019), the article discusses how platforms manage controversial political influencers: the ideological entrepreneurs. From the point of view of the empirical analysis, the essay identifies ambiguities in the DSA text that neither clarify the role of ideological entrepreneurs nor explicitly outline the concept of disinformation. Furthermore, a longitudinal analysis (18 months) of the content moderation measures implemented in compliance with the DSA and accessible thanks to the DSA Transparency Database, shows that social media platforms tend to privilege temporary measures such as accounts suspension, rather than more effective actions such as deplatforming (Van Dijck et al., 2023). This reflects ongoing tensions in the regulation of digital services, especially when balancing innovation in governance with the protection of the democratic information environment. As a result, the article highlights a double-standard policy adopted by platforms towards the influencers: On one side they actively contribute to feeding the flow of disinformation and fake news, but on the other hand, they enable platforms to generate visibility and traffic, thus reinforcing the "business of polarization" typical of surveillance capitalism
Wartime And Social Media Ecosystem. Disinformation Strategies And Bridges for Under-The-Radar Platforms
No full textMixed Analysis of User Activity, Content, and Networks: Twitter’s Information Cascades on Conspiratorial Pandemics
No full textMapping the Just Green Transitions in the Socio-political Virtual Space
No full textSince the European Green Deal was launched (European Commission, 2019), social media and especially Twitter (now X) has become the one main socio-political virtual space where the European Commission is promoting the European Union’s twinned (Just, Green, and Digital) Transitions. This multidisciplinary exploratory research crosscuts Spatial Planning & Territorial Governance (Nadine et al., 2018; Berisha, et al., 2021), and Social Media Studies and Digital Methods (Rogers, 2018; 2019), investigating the existence of the term "Just Green Transitions" on Twitter, highlighting the potential benefits that social media analysis could add to the disciplines of Governance and Policymaking. Utilizing Social Network Analysis, both Mention Analysis and Co-hashtag- Analysis were applied to capture and analyse three million original tweets over the first twenty months since the Just Transition Mechanism entered into force (European Parliament, 2021). The results highlighted the fragmentation of the terminologies and Twitter user communities, discussing the expected transitions of Europe which are expected to be Just and Green (European Commission, 2021)
The COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign and Disinformation on Twitter: The Role of Opinion Leaders amd Political Social Media Influencers in the Italian Debate on Green Pass
No full textLa disinformazione in tempo di guerra. Il ruolo delle piattaforme sottotraccia nell’ecosistema dei social network
No full textWho's fuelling Twitter disinformation on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign? Evidence from a computational analysis of the green pass debate
No full textThe COVID-19 health emergency increased disinformation’s role and fostered a growing fragmentation between conflicting opinions on COVID-19 causes, vaccination policies, and government measures to deal with the pandemic. Studies have found that disinformation sources included private citizens, independent organizations, main-stream online newspapers and even public figures such as politicians, commentators, bloggers etc. In Italy, the Twitter debate ignited a conflict between mainstream positions in favour of restrictions, and more libertarian opinions extremely critical of government mea-sures. Our research investigates, through a computational approach based on digital methods and social network analysis (SNA), opinion leaders’ roles in the Italian green pass debate on Twitter that surfaced in the second half of 2021. Drawing on the classic two-step model of communication, our essay identifies the Italian opinion leaders on Twitter and their content dissemination strategies. Our analysis reveals a limited number of dominant voices interacting in segregated net-works of users. These networks can be considered echo chambers given the verbose and self-referential tweeting activity of their opinion leaders. Moreover, such activity involves spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories through a dissemination strategy aimed at divert-ing the audience from Twitter, towards ‘below-the-radar’ environ-ments (e.g. Rumble), where political views are more radica
Terrapiattismo, Covid-19/5G e altre cospirazioni: la pandemia del complottismo su Twitter
No full textThe Eurabia Conspiracy Theory: Twitter’s Political Influencers, Narratives, and Information Sources
No full textIn recent years, conspiracy theories on social media have emerged as a significant issue capable of undermining social perceptions of European integration. Narratives such as the Eurabia doctrine, which would imply an ethnic replacement of the indigenous European population with migrants (Bergmann, 2018), have been a significant resonance. Thanks to computational analysis, we have collected data from Twitter over three years (2020, 2021, and 2022) during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this period, we collected over 50,000 tweets strictly related to the Eurabia doctrine topic in different European languages. Analysing the collected data, we identified the most relevant voices spreading conspiracy theories online, the emerging narratives related to the Eurabia doctrine, and the primary sources used by the most active or mentioned subjects in spreading disinformation
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