Abstract

The spread of misinformation on social networks poses a significant challenge to online communities and society at large. Not all users contribute equally to this phenomenon: a small number of highly effective individuals can exert outsized influence, amplifying false narratives and contributing to significant societal harm. This paper seeks to mitigate the spread of misinformation by enabling proactive interventions, identifying and ranking users according to key behavioral indicators associated with harmful content dissemination. We examine three user archetypes — amplifiers, super-spreaders, and coordinated accounts — each characterized by distinct behavioral patterns in the dissemination of misinformation. These are not mutually exclusive, and individual users may exhibit characteristics of multiple archetypes. We develop and evaluate several user ranking models, each aligned with a specific archetype, and …

Date

December 1, 2025

Authors

Enrico Verdolotti, Luca Luceri, Silvia Giordano

Journal

Online Social Networks and Media

Volume

50

Pages

100336

Publisher

Elsevier