Information diffusion model for spread of misinformation in online social networks

With the advent of Web 2.0, social networks have become an important medium for dissemination of information in the Internet. The process of information dissemination in social networks has been studied using a number of information diffusion models. Due to the collaborative nature of the networks and limited accountability of the users, the media is often misused for spread of rumours and misinformation. In this paper, we have a proposed a novel information diffusion model for the spread of misinformation using Evolutionary game theory and Evolutionary graph theory. The proposed model could be used to analyse as well as predict the spread of misinformation. It also provides a framework to study the effects of multiple campaigns in the network which would enable us to estimate the efficacy of launching counter campaigns against the spread of misinformation. We have used extensive simulation to support our claim.