What are Cyber Social Threats

8.30 – 8.45 AM – Welcome to the CySoc 2021 workshop attendees.
8.45 – 9.45 AM – Keynote I: Brooke Foucault Welles, Northeastern University.

"The Battle for #Baltimore: Networked Counterpublics and the Contested Framing of Urban Unrest".
A growing body of research suggests that Twitter has become a key resource for networked counterpublics to intervene in popular discourse about racism and policing in the United States. At the same time, claims that online communication necessarily results in polarized echo chambers are common. In response to these seemingly contrary impulses in communication research, we explore how the contested online network comprised of tweets about the April 2015 protests in Baltimore, Maryland, evolved as users constructed meaning and debated questions of protest and race. We find that even within this highly polarized debate, counterpublic frames found widespread support on Twitter. Progressive racial justice messages were advanced, in part, by brokers who worked across polarized subcommunities in the network to build mutual understanding and model effective strategies for reconciling disparate accounts of protest events.

"The Role of AI in Countering Cyber Social Threats."
Moderated by Aleszu Bajak (USA Today)

"Next Frontiers of Combating Cyber Social Threats".
Cyber social threats can wreak havoc in our lives at various levels. Disinformation and cyberbullying are two such examples. When more people and younger generations spend more time on social media, users are exposed to this new type of social threats. For example, false information is shown that it spreads faster, deeper, and longer on social media. Furthermore, false information is dividing people, polarizing groups, confusing readers, and can be weaponized by nation-states to exert their influence. Cyberbullying happens and inflicts harm often to younger users, resulting in dire consequences for the victims. We have witnessed significant research progress in recent years on disinformation detection and cyberbullying identification. After showing some encouraging development in these difficult tasks of detection and identification, we discuss some questions regarding what’s next beyond detection for building a healthier and less dividing ecosystem on social media in combating cyber social threats.

• Dilshod Achilov, Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA.
• Nitin Agarwal, Information Science, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA.
• Charlotte Alexander, Law, Georgia State University, USA.
• Kimberley Allison, Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
• I. Budak Arpinar, Computer Science, University of Georgia, USA.
• Goonmeet Bajaj, Computer Science, Ohio State University, USA.
• Ghazaleh Beigi, Computer Science, Google, USA
• Shannon Bowen, Communications, University of South Carolina, USA
• Lu Cheng, Computer Science, Arizona State University, USA
• Kaize Ding, Computer Science, Arizona State University, USA
• Manas Gaur, AI Institute, University of South Carolina, USA.
• Muhammad Nihal Hussain, Information Science, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA.
• Gabrielle Lim, International Affairs, Shorenstein Center, Harvard University, Boston, USA
• Enrico Mariconti, Crime Science, University College London, UK.
• Hemant Purohit, Information Science, George Mason University, USA.
• Dawn Robinson, Sociology, University of Georgia, USA.
• Kaushik Roy, AI Institute, University of South Carolina, USA.
• Valerie Shalin, Psychology, Wright State University, USA.
• Kai Shu, Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA.
• Biplav Srivastava, AI Institute, University of South Carolina, USA.
• Gianluca Stringhini, Computer Science, Boston University, USA.
• Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Computer Science, Wright State University, USA.
• Nikhita Vedula, Computer Science, Amazon Research, USA.
• Dezhi Wu, Information Science, University of South Carolina, USA
• Fatima Zahrah, Computer Science, University of Oxford, UK.