An Agent-Based Model of Message Propagation in the Facebook Electronic Social Network

Understand

A large scale agent-based model of common Facebook users was designed to develop an understanding of the underlying mechanism of information diffusion within online social networks at a micro-level analysis.

• The agent-based model network structure is based on a sample from Facebook.
• Using an erased configuration model and the idea of common neighbours, a new correction procedure was investigated to overcome the problem of missing graph edges to construct a representative sample of the Facebook network graph.
• The model parameters are based on assumptions and general activity patterns (such as posting rate, time spent on Facebook etc.) taken from general data on Facebook.