Quantifying the Vulnerabilities of the Online Public Square to Manipulation Tactics

Quantifying the Vulnerabilities of the Online Public Square to Manipulation Tactics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Quantifying the Vulnerabilities of the Online Public Square to Manipulation Tactics Bao Tran Truong, Xiaodan Lou, Alessandro Flammini, Filippo Menczer This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3011774/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Social media, the modern public square, is vulnerable to manipulation. By controlling inauthentic accounts impersonating humans, malicious actors can amplify disinformation within target communities. The consequences of such operations are difficult to evaluate due to the ethical challenges posed by experiments that would influence online communities. Here we use a social media model that simulates information diffusion in an empirical network to quantify the impacts of adversarial manipulation tactics on the quality of content. We find that social media features such as high information load, limited attention, and the presence of influentials exacerbate the vulnerabilities of online communities. Infiltrating a community is the most harmful tactic that bad actors can exploit and the most likely to make low-quality content go viral. The harm is further compounded by inauthentic agents flooding the network with engaging low-quality content, but is mitigated when influential or vulnerable individuals are targeted. These insights suggest countermeasures that platforms could employ to increase the resilience of social media users to manipulation. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Communication Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Society Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Interdisciplinary studies social networks misinformation social media manipulation tactics social bots Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3011774","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":211309854,"identity":"4d9a77cc-097e-436b-a7c2-3971d9c7aeb5","order_by":0,"name":"Bao Tran Truong","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAArElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAxiDnxlEshGnhbEBxJBsJlmLwQFitZizHz7+uLLNJs/4OI8Bw4eyw4S1WPakJTaebUsrNjvMY8A44xwRWgwO5Bg2NrYdTtwG1MLM20aMlvNvIFo2NwO1/CVKyw2oLRuYgVoYidFiOeNZ4syGc2mJMw6zFRzsOZdOWIs5f/KBjw1lNon9/Yc3PvhRZk1YCwo4QKL6UTAKRsEoGAW4AAAHCzvG0+5/xAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8072-5463","institution":"Indiana University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bao","middleName":"Tran","lastName":"Truong","suffix":""},{"id":211309851,"identity":"0c3de67c-caa9-4e5d-8bb8-937f40a3dd5a","order_by":1,"name":"Xiaodan Lou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indiana University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiaodan","middleName":"","lastName":"Lou","suffix":""},{"id":211309852,"identity":"7065622e-81cb-403c-b452-f138f2710f6a","order_by":2,"name":"Alessandro Flammini","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indiana University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Alessandro","middleName":"","lastName":"Flammini","suffix":""},{"id":211309853,"identity":"01d2ef7e-d58e-4223-a569-50bdeb8ff1ef","order_by":3,"name":"Filippo Menczer","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indiana University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Filippo","middleName":"","lastName":"Menczer","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-06-01 21:30:57","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3011774/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3011774/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":42256476,"identity":"8573de01-310e-442d-b14e-29d6fb9dc3d8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-08-28 17:03:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1629955,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"VulnerabilitiesoftheOnlinePublicSquare.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3011774/v1_covered_457c6568-8305-4e22-8701-029ebdfd154c.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Quantifying the Vulnerabilities of the Online Public Square to Manipulation Tactics","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"social networks, misinformation, social media, manipulation tactics, social bots","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3011774/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3011774/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Social media, the modern public square, is vulnerable to manipulation. 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