Social Trust-based Blockchain-enabled Social Media News Verification System

In the current digital era, information exchanges can be done easily through the Internet and social media. However, the actual truth of the news on social media platforms is hard to prove, and social media platforms are susceptible to the spreading of hoaxes. As a remedy, Blockchain technology can be used to ensure the reliability of shared information and can create a trusted communications environment. In this study, we propose a social media news spreading model by adapting an epidemic methodology and a scale-free network. A Blockchain-based news verification system is implemented to identify the credibility of the news and its sources. The effectiveness of the model is investigated by utilizing agent-based modelling using NetLogo software. In the simulations, fake news with a truth level of 20% are assigned a low News Credibility Indicator (NCI ± -0.637) value for all of the different network dimensions. Moreover, the Producer Reputation Credit is also decreased (PRC ± 0.213) so that the trust factor value is reduced. Our epidemic approach for news verification has also been implemented using Ethereum Smart Contract and several tools such as React with Solidity, IPFS, Web3.js, and Metamask. By showing the measurements of the credibility indicator and reputation credit to the user during the news dissemination process, this proposed smart contract can effectively limit user behaviour in spreading fake news and improve the content quality on social media.