An Approach to Identify Provocative and Problematic Content with Social Nociceptor

In recent times the gradual decrease in the confidence of mainstream media among the masses is observable. As per a survey, 36% of US citizens trust news organizations for delivering factually correct and straight information with respect to 54% in mid-1989 [1]. In this post-trust era, the news is motivated by individual belief and emotions, depriving the true information. In such a scenario “stories of uncertain provenance or accuracy”, accepted by people as fact [2], [3]. Inaccurate or compromised news carries potential threats towards communal harmony, political motives and hatred among different cultural or religious communities. Zimbars, (2016) creates a bibliography of websites along with 11 categories of misleading or fake news which includes – hate news, junk science, politics etc. However, the automatic detection of such misleading information is expected in today's world.

Human psychology reveals the effects of confirmation bias, which is an inclination to process information in conformity with individuals’ preconception. Social influence is another factor which results in herd behaviour [4], [5]. These notions varies across culture, religion, education, economic statuses and languages. Hence, precise categorization of topics that is utterly sensitive for the people will be effective. We term such topics as “social nociceptors”. Nociceptors is a biological term, represents a type of sensory neuron to signal the damage happens in the body, externally. We extend this term in social context.

The first step in our solution approach is to identify social nociceptors. For example, in present pandemic scenario “covid19” can be identified as a social nociceptor. Now, news, posts, comments, and blogs will be analysed to find words that are related to “covid19”. Words like – “vaccine”, “immunity”, “mask” will come up in this regards. In our approach, we will classify statements as problematic or provocative in context of “covid19” in which strong sentiment and emotion has expressed a commentary on words like - “vaccine”, “immunity”, “mask” etc.