Abstract

Significance We explore the key differences between the main social media platforms and how they are likely to influence information spreading and the formation of echo chambers. To assess the different dynamics, we perform a comparative analysis on more than 100 million pieces of content concerning controversial topics (e.g., gun control, vaccination, abortion) from Gab, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. The analysis focuses on two main dimensions: 1) homophily in the interaction networks and 2) bias in the information diffusion toward like-minded peers. Our results show that the aggregation in homophilic clusters of users dominates online dynamics. However, a direct comparison of news consumption on Facebook and Reddit shows higher segregation on Facebook.

Keywords

HomophilySocial mediaEcho (communications protocol)Internet privacyComputer scienceDiffusionDynamics (music)Key (lock)Consumption (sociology)AdvertisingWorld Wide WebPsychologySociologySocial psychologyPhysicsComputer securityBusiness

MeSH Terms

AbortionLegalBiasCommunicationGun ViolenceHumansInformation DisseminationNarrationPatient Protection and Affordable Care ActPoliticsSocial ChangeSocial MediaSocial NetworkingVaccination

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Publication Info

Year
2021
Type
article
Volume
118
Issue
9
Citations
1584
Access
Closed

External Links

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1584
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54
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Cite This

Matteo Cinelli, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Alessandro Galeazzi et al. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 118 (9) . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118

Identifiers

DOI
10.1073/pnas.2023301118
PMID
33622786
PMCID
PMC7936330

Data Quality

Data completeness: 86%