MediaFutures Seminar: Countering rumours in online social media: A comprehensive response with the focus on ML-based approaches, Amir Ebrahimi Fard

Amir Ebrahimi Fard, Postdoctoral Researcher on Explainable AI at Maastricht University, will give a talk on Thursday 28 October, at 12:00.

TITLE: Countering rumours in online social media: A comprehensive response with the focus on ML-based approaches
WHEN: Thursday 28 October 2021, 12:00-13:00
WHERE: Zoom: https://uib.zoom.us/j/62501981715?pwd=cTFaemd6d2gzWTVlamcrWW9BTC8rdz09 
Meeting ID: 625 0198 1715
Password: MQFY5Zm1

Abstract: 

The phenomenon of rumour spreading refers to a collective process where people participate in the transmission of unverified and relevant information to make sense of ambiguous, dangerous, or threatening situations. The dissemination of rumours in certain subject domains such as healthcare, economics, and politics on a large scale no matter with what purpose could precipitate catastrophic repercussions. Thus it is of utmost importance to respond to this growing threat urgently and meticulously. There have been serious efforts by governments, platforms, news organisations, and academic institutions around the world to curb and control the dissemination of online rumours; however, the surge of unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories during the COVID time showed the power of this phenomenon once more.

Inspired by epidemiology, during this seminar, I will discuss a comprehensive and coordinated response to counter rumour spreading in social media. Besides, in this response, I will emphasise the role of machine learning-based models due to their scalability and point out one specific issue with current approaches to computational rumour detection.

Bio: 

Amir Ebrahimi Fard is a postdoctoral researcher on Explainable AI at the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering at Maastricht University. He received his PhD from TU Delft on the topic of rumour detection in online social media.