Keynote speech 1: Misinformation Detection in Online Social Networks using Content

Misinformation is considered one of the most critical challenges of recent years. Despite all the attempts, the automatic detection of misinformation still remains an open problem. Although misinformation and fake news exist for a long period of time, the ubiquitousness of social media has facilitated their propagation with severe consequences for the society. For example, the “Pizzagate” shooting incident was a result of fake news that went viral claiming the involvement of a restaurant in human trafficking. This talk will focus on the topic of misinformation detection. First, I will introduce the concept and characteristics of the different types of misinformation and disinformation such as fake news, satire, rumours that go viral in online social networks. Then, I will present some of the most recent detection approaches with a particular focus on approaches that exploit psycho-linguistic information (i.e., emotion, sentiment, informal language). Finally, I will discuss challenges and open issues in the field of misinformation detection.