DEVIANCE 2021 Workshop on Deviant Activities on Social Media

Wednesday, December 15, 2021 to Saturday, December 18, 2021

Event Details

Co-located with 2021 IEEE Conference on Big Data (IEEE BigData 2021)

December 15-18, 2021 (due to COVID-19 the workshop will be held virtually)

Website: http://cosmos.ualr.edu/workshops/deviance/2021/

Introduction:

With the proliferation of smart devices, mobile applications, and social network platforms, the social side effects of these technologies have become more profound, especially in social and political disintegration. Several journalistic and academic investigations have reported that modern communication platforms such as social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, and the “deep web” channels) are strategically used to coordinate various deviant activities such as cyber propaganda campaigns. Several researchers have studied these deviant activities and identified various tactics, techniques, and procedures used by various online deviant groups, e.g., online propagandist groups,terrorist groups sympathizers, black-hat hacker groups, and internet trolls. Various social media platforms utilized the research findings to detect and curb some of these deviant activities. However, the techniques that are used by the aforementioned deviant groups evolve and adapt to go on undetected. This is a growing problem on social media that needs to be explored and solved.

In this workshop, our aim is to have a scientific discussion among the experts who study deviant activities on social media, including but not limited to, detection of deviant/disruptive behaviors on social media; misinformation detection, identification, and dissemination; case studies of misinformation; etc. This includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

Research Topics:

Misinformation detection
Misinformation dissemination tactics such as misdirection, hashtag-latching, smoke screening
Multiple platform orchestration (cross-platform dissemination strategies)
Algorithmic manipulation such as exploiting recommendation algorithm bias manipulation
Deviant behaviors on social media platforms such as cyber bullying, organized hacking
Spamming, spear phishing through social media channels
Coordination strategies and detection
Mobs such as cyber flash mobs, smart mobs, deviant cyber flash mobs, automated deviant mobs
Coordinated inauthentic behaviors
Machine driven communications (bots, botnets, social bots, etc.)
Troll detection and strategies
Hate speech (toxic, polarizing, or disruptive content)
Narratives analysis during misinformation online campaigns
Stance detection and intent classification
Policy implications

**In the light of recent elections worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic, and covid-related deviant behaviors such as anti-lockdown campaigns, vaccine hesitancy, etc., we also solicit papers focused on disinformation and misinformation being disseminated related to these events.**

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: September 10, 2021

Notification to Authors: October 29, 2021

Camera Ready Due: November 12, 2021

Venue Information:

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is decided that the IEEE BigData conference and the DEVIANCE 2021 Workshop will be held virtually. Further information will be provided closer to the workshop.

Submission:

Full paper manuscripts must be in English with a maximum length of 10 pages (using the IEEE two-column template). Submissions should be in PDF and include the title, author(s), affiliation(s), e-mail address(es) and abstract on the first page. Workshop papers can be submitted through the submission portal.

Papers should be formatted to IEEE Computer Society Proceedings Manuscript Formatting Guidelines.

All papers accepted for the workshop will be included in the Conference Proceedings published by the IEEE Computer Society Press.

Special Issue:

Selected presentations will be invited to submit extended studies to Springer’s Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM) special issue on Deviant Behaviors on Social Media.

Workshop Chairs:

Esther Ledelle Mead

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, COSMOS Center, UA Little Rock

elmead@ualr.edu

Muhammad Nihal Hussain

Lead Data Scientist, Equifax Inc.

mnhussain@ualr.edu

Kiran Kumar Bandeli

Data Scientist, Walmart Inc.

KiranKumar.Bandeli@walmart.com