Who is Spreading Rumours about Vaccines?: Influential User Impact Modelling in Social Networks

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy, traditionally linked to issues of trust, misinformation and prior beliefs, has been increasingly fuelled by influential groups on social media (SM) and the Internet. Analysis of news media and social networks (SN) accessible in real-time provides a new opportunity for detecting changes in public confidence in vaccines. However, different concerns are important in different regions, and reasons for hesitancy and the role of opinion leaders vary between sub-controversies in the broader vaccination debates. It is therefore important for public health professionals to gain an overview of the emerging debates in cyberspace, identify influential users and rumours, and assess their impact in order to know how to respond. The VAC Medi+Board project aims to visualise the diffusion of rumours through SN and assess the impact of key individuals. We include, as a case study, discussions during winter 2015-16 pertaining to the alleged side-effects of the HPV vaccine.