Analyzing Disinformation with the Active Propagation Strategy

In recent years, disinformation has had an increasingly detrimental effect on society. It is driving a wedge between people, causing a crisis of public trust and social unrest. Malicious spreaders often actively propagate disinformation on different social media, so people are exposed repeatedly to messages that deepen establish false memories. This 'illusory truth effect' leads people to believe that the repeated disinformation is truthful. Eventually, people may generate a cognitive bias that makes their thinking more easily by others. This work focuses on identifying various features of information by analyzing the motivation for, purpose of, and methods of achieving the active propagation of false information. Then, behaviors that are associated with active propagation will be summarized to identify its sources. Finally, a framework for detecting actively propagated disinformation will be proposed. This framework can be used for gathering information about, and analyzing, and serving as an aid to decision-making.