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Introduction
1.1 OVERVIEW
While social networks have been around since at least the 1930s, the advent of the World Wide Web
(WWW) resulted in the development of online social networks (OSNs). OSNs are online applica-
tions that allow their users to connect by means of various link types. Since its inception in the mid-
1990s, social networks have provided a way for users to interact, reecting the social networks or
social relations among people, for example, those who share interests and/or activities. Initially, crit-
ics regarded social media as a fad, a temporary fashion. But today, social media has demonstrated
exponential growth, making ...