Opinion dynamics models based on the multi-agent method commonly assume that interactions between individuals in a social network result in changes in their opinions.However,formation of public opinion in a social net...Opinion dynamics models based on the multi-agent method commonly assume that interactions between individuals in a social network result in changes in their opinions.However,formation of public opinion in a social network is a macroscopic statistical result of opinions of all expressive individuals(corresponding to silent individuals).Therefore,public opinion can be manipulated not only by changing individuals'opinions,but also by changing their states of expression(or silence)which can be interpreted as the phenomenon"spiral of silence"in social psychology.Based on this theory,we establish a"dual opinion climate"model,involving social bots and mass media through a multi-agent method,to describe mechanism for manipulation of public opinion in social networks.We find that both social bots(as local variables)and mass media(as a global variable)can interfere with the formation of public opinion,cause a significant superposition effect when they act in the same direction,and inhibit each other when they act in opposite directions.展开更多
Social bots are automated programs designed to spread rumors and misinformation,posing significant threats to online security.Existing research shows that the structure of a social network significantly affects the be...Social bots are automated programs designed to spread rumors and misinformation,posing significant threats to online security.Existing research shows that the structure of a social network significantly affects the behavioral patterns of social bots:a higher number of connected components weakens their collaborative capabilities,thereby reducing their proportion within the overall network.However,current social bot detection methods still make limited use of topological features.Furthermore,both graph neural network(GNN)-based methods that rely on local features and those that leverage global features suffer from their own limitations,and existing studies lack an effective fusion of multi-scale information.To address these issues,this paper proposes a topology-aware multi-scale social bot detection method,which jointly learns local and global representations through a co-training mechanism.At the local level,topological features are effectively embedded into node representations,enhancing expressiveness while alleviating the over-smoothing problem in GNNs.At the global level,a clustering attention mechanism is introduced to learn global node representations,mitigating the over-globalization problem.Experimental results demonstrate that our method effectively overcomes the limitations of single-scale approaches.Our code is publicly available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/TopoMSG-2C41/(accessed on 27 October 2025).展开更多
Complex network modeling characterizes system relationships and structures,while network visualization enables intuitive analysis and interpretation of these patterns.However,existing network visualization tools exhib...Complex network modeling characterizes system relationships and structures,while network visualization enables intuitive analysis and interpretation of these patterns.However,existing network visualization tools exhibit significant limitations in representing attributes of complex networks at various scales,particularly failing to provide advanced visual representations of specific nodes and edges,community affiliation attribution,and global scalability.These limitations substantially impede the intuitive analysis and interpretation of complex network patterns through visual representation.To address these limitations,we propose SFFSlib,a multi-scale network visualization framework incorporating novel methods to highlight attribute representation in diverse network scenarios and optimize structural feature visualization.Notably,we have enhanced the visualization of pivotal details at different scales across diverse network scenarios.The visualization algorithms proposed within SFFSlib were applied to real-world datasets and benchmarked against conventional layout algorithms.The experimental results reveal that SFFSlib significantly enhances the clarity of visualizations across different scales,offering a practical solution for the advancement of network attribute representation and the overall enhancement of visualization quality.展开更多
The rise of online social platforms has enhanced connectivity and access to information.Still,it has also enabled the proliferation of malicious social bots that threaten platform security and disrupt social order.In ...The rise of online social platforms has enhanced connectivity and access to information.Still,it has also enabled the proliferation of malicious social bots that threaten platform security and disrupt social order.In this paper,we introduce a unified framework for defining and classifying malicious social bots along three dimensions:behavior,interaction,and operation.We then present a comprehensive review of social bot detection methods,tracing their evolution from traditional machine learning techniques to deep learning architectures and graph neural networks,with particular emphasis on recent advances in group-level detection.We also explore the emerging paradigm of Large Language Model(LLM)based bot detection.This paper reviews the current state of research,identifies key challenges,and outlines future directions.It provides a cohesive foundation for building more robust detection frameworks to counter the evolving threats posed by malicious social bots.展开更多
基金by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61976120 and 62006128)the Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China(Grant No.21YJCZH013).
文摘Opinion dynamics models based on the multi-agent method commonly assume that interactions between individuals in a social network result in changes in their opinions.However,formation of public opinion in a social network is a macroscopic statistical result of opinions of all expressive individuals(corresponding to silent individuals).Therefore,public opinion can be manipulated not only by changing individuals'opinions,but also by changing their states of expression(or silence)which can be interpreted as the phenomenon"spiral of silence"in social psychology.Based on this theory,we establish a"dual opinion climate"model,involving social bots and mass media through a multi-agent method,to describe mechanism for manipulation of public opinion in social networks.We find that both social bots(as local variables)and mass media(as a global variable)can interfere with the formation of public opinion,cause a significant superposition effect when they act in the same direction,and inhibit each other when they act in opposite directions.
基金supported by“the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”(Grant No.CUCAI2511).
文摘Social bots are automated programs designed to spread rumors and misinformation,posing significant threats to online security.Existing research shows that the structure of a social network significantly affects the behavioral patterns of social bots:a higher number of connected components weakens their collaborative capabilities,thereby reducing their proportion within the overall network.However,current social bot detection methods still make limited use of topological features.Furthermore,both graph neural network(GNN)-based methods that rely on local features and those that leverage global features suffer from their own limitations,and existing studies lack an effective fusion of multi-scale information.To address these issues,this paper proposes a topology-aware multi-scale social bot detection method,which jointly learns local and global representations through a co-training mechanism.At the local level,topological features are effectively embedded into node representations,enhancing expressiveness while alleviating the over-smoothing problem in GNNs.At the global level,a clustering attention mechanism is introduced to learn global node representations,mitigating the over-globalization problem.Experimental results demonstrate that our method effectively overcomes the limitations of single-scale approaches.Our code is publicly available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/TopoMSG-2C41/(accessed on 27 October 2025).
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61773091 and 62476045)the LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program(Grant No.XLYC1807106)the Program for the Outstanding Innovative Teams of Higher Learning Institutions of Liaoning(Grant No.LR2016070).
文摘Complex network modeling characterizes system relationships and structures,while network visualization enables intuitive analysis and interpretation of these patterns.However,existing network visualization tools exhibit significant limitations in representing attributes of complex networks at various scales,particularly failing to provide advanced visual representations of specific nodes and edges,community affiliation attribution,and global scalability.These limitations substantially impede the intuitive analysis and interpretation of complex network patterns through visual representation.To address these limitations,we propose SFFSlib,a multi-scale network visualization framework incorporating novel methods to highlight attribute representation in diverse network scenarios and optimize structural feature visualization.Notably,we have enhanced the visualization of pivotal details at different scales across diverse network scenarios.The visualization algorithms proposed within SFFSlib were applied to real-world datasets and benchmarked against conventional layout algorithms.The experimental results reveal that SFFSlib significantly enhances the clarity of visualizations across different scales,offering a practical solution for the advancement of network attribute representation and the overall enhancement of visualization quality.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62302213)Key Laboratory of Social Computing and Cognitive Intelligence(Dalian University of Technology),Ministry of Education,China.
文摘The rise of online social platforms has enhanced connectivity and access to information.Still,it has also enabled the proliferation of malicious social bots that threaten platform security and disrupt social order.In this paper,we introduce a unified framework for defining and classifying malicious social bots along three dimensions:behavior,interaction,and operation.We then present a comprehensive review of social bot detection methods,tracing their evolution from traditional machine learning techniques to deep learning architectures and graph neural networks,with particular emphasis on recent advances in group-level detection.We also explore the emerging paradigm of Large Language Model(LLM)based bot detection.This paper reviews the current state of research,identifies key challenges,and outlines future directions.It provides a cohesive foundation for building more robust detection frameworks to counter the evolving threats posed by malicious social bots.
