[AISWorld] CFP: JCSO Special Issue on Misinformation, manipulation and abuse on social media in the era of COVID-19

[Stefano Cresci]

Announcing the special issue on

*Misinformation, manipulation and abuse on social media in the era of
COVID-19 <https://www.springer.com/journal/42001/updates/17993070>*
Journal of Computational Social Science (JCSO), Springer

https://www.springer.com/journal/42001/updates/17993070

*Call for Papers*
Malicious and abusive behaviours on social media have elicited massive
concerns for the negative repercussions that online activity can have on
personal and collective life. The spread of false information, the rise of
AI-manipulated multimedia, and the emergence of various forms of harmful
content are just a few of the several perils that social media users can,
even unconsciously, encounter in the online ecosystem. In times of crisis,
these issues can only get more pressing, with increased threats for
everyday social media users. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic makes no
exception and, due to dramatically increased information needs, represents
the ideal setting for the spread of a multitude of low-credibility and
unverified information, and for malicious actors aiming to take advantage
of the resulting chaos. In such a high-stakes scenario, the downstream
effects of misinformation exposure or information landscape manipulation
can manifest in attitudes and behaviours with potentially serious public
health consequences.

By affecting the very fabric of our socio-technical systems, these problems
are intrinsically interdisciplinary and require joint efforts to
investigate and address both the technical (e.g., how to thwart automated
accounts and the spread of low-quality information, how to develop
algorithms for detecting deception, automation, and manipulation), as well
as the socio-cultural aspects (e.g., why do people believe in and share
false news, how do interference campaigns evolve over time). Fortunately,
for COVID-19, several open datasets were promptly made available to foster
research on the aforementioned matters (Chen, et al., 2020
<https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.07372>). Such assets can bootstrap the first
wave of studies on the interplay between a global pandemic and online
deception, manipulation and automation.

The purpose of this special issue is to collect contributions proposing
models, methods, empirical findings and/or intervention strategies to
investigate and tackle the abuse of social media along several dimensions
that include (but are not limited to) infodemics, misinformation,
automation, online harassment, false information and conspiracy theories
about the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, to defend the integrity of
online discussions on social media, we aim to stimulate researchers
contributions along two interlaced lines. On one hand, we look for
contributions to enhance the understanding on how health misinformation
spread, on the role of social media actors that play a pivotal role in the
diffusion of inaccurate information, and on the impact of their
interactions with organic users. On the other hand, we seek to stimulate
research on the downstream effects of misinformation and manipulation on
users' perception of and reaction to the wave of questionable information
they are exposed to, and on possible strategies to curb the spread of false
narratives.

*Topic and Themes*
In this special issue, we address problems related to social media abuse,
misbehaviour and misinformation about COVID-19 along several dimensions
that include (but should not be limited to):

   - infodemics, misinformation/disinformation diffusion;
   - false news detection and characterization;
   - malicious entities' (e.g., bots, trolls, cyborgs) activity;
   - coordinated inauthentic behaviours and orchestrated campaigns;
   - information operations;
   - online harassment, abusive behaviour, cyberbullying and hate speech;
   - users' perception, response, and effects of misinformation exposure.


*Guest Editors*
Emilio Ferrara, USC (ferrarae at isi.edu)
Stefano Cresci, IIT-CNR (stefano.cresci at iit.cnr.it)
Luca Luceri, SUPSI (luca.luceri at supsi.ch)

*Important Dates*
Deadline for Submissions: July 15, 2020
Publication: October 2020

--
*Stefano Cresci*

Institute of Informatics and Telematics (IIT)
National Research Council (CNR)
Via Giuseppe Moruzzi, 1
56124 Pisa (Italy)

Phone: *+39 050 315 8272*
Mobile: *+39 328 1330773*
Skype: *mystic_ste*
Web:* http://www.iit.cnr.it/stefano.cresci
<http://www.iit.cnr.it/stefano.cresci>*
Twitter: *@s_cresci <https://twitter.com/s_cresci>*