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Negative Effects Triadic Closure has on Facebook

https://www.cnet.com/news/socialbots-steal-250gb-of-user-data-in-facebook-invasion/

The article “‘SocialBots’ steal 250GB of user data in Facebook invasion” highlights the increasing issue of programs stealing personal information off social media, particularly Facebook. Researchers from University of British Columbia Vancouver conducted an eight-week study to evaluate how easily programs can infiltrate online social networks. These researchers created 102 fake Facebook accounts called socialbots that can produce daily posts and send friend requests. The researchers tasked the socialbots to send 5,053 friend requests to random users, and within two weeks, 19% of these users accepted the request. Then, the socialbots sent 3,517 additional friend requests to the friends of the first-round users that accepted, and 59% of these friends accepted the request.

This study showed how vulnerable online social networks are. In addition, the researchers expressed how simple it is to make automated programs to steal personal information and how Facebook’s Immune System needs improvement in distinguishing fake Facebook users. The article’s conclusions provided Facebook with more insight on their shortcomings and awareness to Facebook users who are accepting friend requests.

Moreover, this article connects to INFO 2040 because it portrays triadic closure. Only 19% of the users accepted in the first round, and 59% in the second round. The increase in acceptance is because of triadic closure. Since, the second-round user sees a connection between their first-round friend and the socialbot, he or she is more likely to accept the friend request because of this connection. In this case, triadic closure makes the Facebook social network vulnerable, especially when the socialbot reaches third or more rounds.

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