FACT: a Framework for Analysis and Capture of Twitter Graphs

Abstract

In the recent years, online social networks have become an important source of news and the primary place for political debates for a growing part of the population. At the same time, the spread of fake news and digital wildfires (fast-spreading and harmful misinformation) has become a growing concern worldwide, and in online social networks the problem is most prevalent. Thus, the study of social networks is an essential component in the understanding of the fake news phenomenon. Of particular interest is the network connectivity between participants, since it makes communication patterns visible. These patterns are hidden in the offline world, but they have a profound impact on the spread of ideas, opinions and news. Among the major social networks, Twitter is of special interest. Because of its public nature, Twitter offers the possibility to perform research without the risk of breaching the expectation of privacy. However, obtaining sufficient amounts of data from Twitter is a fundamental challenge for many researchers. Thus, in this paper, we present a scalable framework for gathering the graph structure of follower networks, posts and profiles. We also show how to use the collected data for high-performance social network analysis.