Information Spread in a Social Media Age

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Control Application 2: Stopping a Fake News Outbreak

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”

Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1854

Continuing along the same methodology presented in the previous control application example, this chapter also formulates a practical social media information spread scenario and proceeds to provide a step-by-step progression toward an optimal control solution to the problem. This second control application example revolves around the mitigation ...