Selected Publications
This a list of my peer-reviewed selected publications ordered by year. For a full list of my publications you can also visit my DBLP or my Google Scholar page.
2024
Sepehr Mousavi, Krishna P. Gummadi, Savvas Zannettou
Auditing Algorithmic Explanations of Social Media Feeds: A Case Study of TikTok Video Explanations
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Moonis Ali, Savvas Zannettou
From Isolation to Desolation: Investigating Self-Harm Discussions in Incel Communities
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
José Miguel Moreno, Sergio Pastrana, Jens Helge Reelfs, Pellayo Vallina, Savvas Zannettou, Andriy Panchenko, Georgios Smaragdakis, Oliver Hohlfeld, Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, Juan Tapiador
Reviewing War: Unconventional User Reviews as a Side Channel to Circumvent Information Controls
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
Karan Vombatkere, Sepehr Mousavi, Savvas Zannettou, Franziska Roesner, Krishna P. Gummadi
TikTok and the Art of Personalization: Investigating Exploration and Exploitation on Social Media Feeds
The Web Conference 2024 (WWW 2024)
pre-print
Salim Chouaki, Abhijnan Chakraborty, Oana Goga, Savvas Zannettou
What News Do People Get on Social Media? Analyzing Exposure and Consumption of News through Data Donations
The Web Conference 2024 (WWW 2024)
Savvas Zannettou, Olivia Nemes-Nemeth, Oshrat Ayalon, Angelica Goetzen, Krishna P. Gummadi, Elissa Redmiles, Franziska Roesner
Analyzing User Engagement with TikTok’s Short Format Video Recommendations using Data Donations
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024)
Daniel Kansaon, Philipe Melo, Savvas Zannettou, Fabricio Benevenuto
Strategies and Attacks of Digital Militias in WhatsApp Political Groups
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
Mohamad Hoseini, Philipe Melo, Fabricio Benevenuto, Anja Feldmann, Savvas Zannettou
Characterizing Information Propagation in Fringe Communities on Telegram
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
Philipe Melo, Mohamad Hoseini, Savvas Zannettou, Fabricio Benevenuto
Don’t Break the Chain: Measuring Message Forwarding on WhatsApp
18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2024)
Xinlei He, Savvas Zannettou, Yun Shen, Yang Zhang
You Only Prompt Once: On the Capabilities of Prompt Learning on Large Language Models to Tackle Toxic Content
45th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P 2024)
pre-print
2023
Yiting Qu, Xinyue Shen, Xinlei He, Michael Backes, Savvas Zannettou, Yang Zhang
Unsafe Diffusion: On the Generation of Unsafe Images and Hateful Memes From Text-To-Image Models
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2023)
pre-print
Mohamad Hoseini, Philipe Melo, Fabricio Benevenuto, Anja Feldmann, Savvas Zannettou
On the Globalization of the QAnon Conspiracy Theory Through Telegram
15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023 (WebSci 2023)
pre-print
Yiting Qu, Xinlei He, Shannon Pierson, Michael Backes, Yang Zhang, Savvas Zannettou
On the Evolution of (Hateful) Memes by Means of Multimodal Contrastive Learning
44th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P 2023)
pre-print
Pujan Paudel, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Savvas Zannettou, Gianluca Stringhini
LAMBRETTA: Learning to Rank for Twitter Soft Moderation
44th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P 2023)
pre-print
Felipe Gonzalez-Pizarro, Savvas Zannettou
Understanding and Detecting Hateful Content using Contrastive Learning
17th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2023)
pre-print
Chen Ling, Krishna P Gummadi, Savvas Zannettou
“Learn the Facts About COVID-19”: Analyzing the Use of Warning Labels on TikTok Videos
17th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2023)
pre-print
Alexandros Efsratiou, Jeremy Blackburn, Tristan Caulfield, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, Emiliano De Cristofaro
Non-Polar Opposites: Analyzing the Relationship Between Echo Chambers and Hostile Intergroup Interactions on Reddit
17th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2023)
pre-print
2022
Wai Man Si, Michael Backes, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, Yang Zhang
Why So Toxic? Measuring and Triggering Toxic Behavior in Open-Domain Chatbots
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2022)
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Xinyue Shen, Xinlei He, Michael Backes, Jeremy Blackburn, Savvas Zannettou, Yang Zhang
On Xing Tian and the Perseverance of Anti-China Sentiment Online
16th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022)
pre-print
Mohammad Hammas Saeed, Shiza Ali, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Savvas Zannettou, and Gianluca Stringhini
TROLLMAGNIFIER: Detecting State-Sponsored Troll Accounts on Reddit
43th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P 2022)
Max Aliapoulios, Antonis Papasavva, Cameron Ballard, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, and Jeremy Blackburn
The Gospel According to Q: Understanding the QAnon Conspiracy from the Perspective of Canonical Information
16th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022)
pre-print
Kostantinos Papadamou, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, and Michael Sirivianos
“It is just a flu”: Assessing the Effect of Watch History on YouTube’s Pseudoscientific Video Recommendations
16th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022)
pre-print
2021
Savvas Zannettou
“I Won the Election!”: An Empirical Analysis of Soft Moderation Interventions on Twitter
15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021)
pre-print
media coverage The Atlantic
Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Shagun Jhaver, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, Robert West
Does Platform Migration Compromise Content Moderation? Evidence from r/The_Donald and r/Incels
24th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2021)
pre-print
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Max Aliapoulios, Emmi Bevensee, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stinghini, and Savvas Zannettou
A Large Open Dataset from the Parler Social Network
15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021)
pre-print
media coverage USA Today, The Conversation, Business Insider-1, Business Insider-2
Fatemeh Tahmasbi, Leonard Schild, Chen Ling, Jeremy Blackburn, Gianluca Stringhini, Yang Zhang, Savvas Zannettou
“Go eat a bat, Chang!”: On the Emergence of Sinophobic Behavior on Web Communities in the Face of COVID-19
The Web Conference 2021 (formerly known as WWW)
pre-print
Antonis Papasavva, Jeremy Blackburn, Gianluca Stringhini, Savvas Zannettou, Emiliano De Cristofaro
The Great Awakening: An Exploratory Study of QAnon on Voat
The Web Conference 2021 (formerly known as WWW)
pre-print
Chen Ling, Ihab AbuHilal, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Savvas Zannettou, Gianluca Stringhini
Dissecting the Meme Magic: Understanding Indicators of Virality in Image Memes
24th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2021)
pre-print
Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Jeremy Blackburn, Barry Bradlyn, Emiliano De Cristofaro Gianluca Stringhini, Summer Long, Stephanie Greenberg, Savvas Zannettou
The Evolution of the Manosphere Across the Web
15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021)
pre-print
media coverage Newsweek, MIT Tech, Daily Mail
Yuping Wang, Fatemeh Tahmasbi, Jeremy Blackburn, Barry Bradlyn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, David Magerman, Savvas Zannettou, Gianluca Stringhini
Understanding the Use of Fauxtography on Social Media
15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2021)
pre-print
2020
Mohamad Hoseini, Philipe Melo, Manoel Júnior, Fabrício Benevenuto, Balakrishnan Chandrasekaran, Anja Feldmann, Savvas Zannettou
Demystifying the Messaging Platforms’ Ecosystem Through the Lens of Twitter
20th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2020)
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth Belding, Shirin Nilizadeh, and Gianluca Stringhini
Measuring and Characterizing Hate Speech on News Websites
11th ACM Conference on Web Science (WebSci 2020)
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Joel Finkelstein, Barry Bradlyn, and Jeremy Blackburn
A Quantitative Approach to Understanding Online Antisemitism
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Savvas Zannettou, Barry Bradlyn, Tristan Caulfield, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, and Jeremy Blackburn
Characterizing the Use of Images in State-Sponsored Information Warfare Operations by Russian Trolls on Twitter
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf
Kostantinos Papadamou, Antonis Papasavva, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Nicolas Kourtellis, Ilias Leontiadis, Gianluca Stringhini, Michael Sirivianos
Disturbed YouTube for Kids: Characterizing and Detecting Inappropriate Videos Targeting Young Children 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Alexandros Mittos, Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, and Emiliano De Cristofaro
“And We Will Fight For Our Race! A Measurement Study of Genetic Testing Conversations on Reddit and 4chan
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf
media coverage The Times, StatNews
Antonis Papasavva, Savvas Zannettou, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Gianluca Stringhini, and Jeremy Blackburn
Raiders of the Lost Kek: 3.5 Years of Augmented 4chan Posts from the Politically Incorrect Board
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf
Jason Baumgartner, Savvas Zannettou, Megan Squire, and Jeremy Blackburn
The Pushshift Telegram Dataset
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf
Jason Baumgartner, Savvas Zannettou, Brian Keegan, Megan Squire, and Jeremy Blackburn
The Pushshift Reddit Dataset
14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2020)
pdf
2019
Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, William Setzer, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, Jeremy Blackburn
Who Let The Trolls Out? Towards Understanding State-Sponsored Trolls
10th ACM Conference on Web Science (WebSci 2019)
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Jeremy Blackburn
Disinformation Warfare: Understanding State-Sponsored Trolls on Twitter & Their Influence on the Web
4th WebConf Workshop on Computational Methods in CyberSafety, Online Harassment, and Misinformation (CyberSafety 2019) Best Paper Award
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Michael Sirivianos, Jeremy Blackburn, Nicholas Kourtellis
The Web of False Information: Rumors, Fake News, Hoaxes, Clickbait, and Various Other Shenanigans
Journal of Data and Information Quality (JIDQ)
pdf
2018
Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil
On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web Communities
18th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2018) Distinguished Paper Award
pdf code
media coverage BBC Trending, BBC News, MIT Technology Review, CBS News, The Independent, VICE, Business Insider, The Daily Dot, Quartz, El Pais (in Spanish), MotherJones, InfoWars, Thinkprogress, Iflscience, Hornet, Bellingcat
Savvas Zannettou, Jeremy Blackburn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini
Understanding Web Archiving Services and Their (Mis)Use on Social Media
12th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2018)
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Barry Bradlyn, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Haewoon Kwak, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, Jeremy Blackburn
What is Gab? A Bastion of Free Speech or an Alt-Right Echo Chamber?
3rd WWW Workshop on Computational Methods for CyberSafety (CyberSafety 2018)
pdf
Savvas Zannettou, Sotirios Chatzis, Kostantinos Papadamou, Michael Sirivianos The Good, the Bad and the Bait: Detecting and Characterizing Clickbait on YouTube
1st Deep Learning and Security Workshop
pdf
2017
Savvas Zannettou, Tristan Caulfield, Emiliano De Cristofaro, Nicholas Kourtellis, Ilias Leontiadis, Michael Sirivianos, Gianluca Stringhini, Jeremy Blackburn
The Web Centipede: Understanding How Web Communities Influence Each Other Through the Lens of Mainstream and Alternative News Sources
17th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2017)
pdf blog
media coverage Nature, The Atlantic, La Repubblica (in Italian), Ansa (in Italian), Sky News, Hacker News, BoingBoing, Phys.org, Naked Security
2016
Savvas Zannettou, Michael Sirivianos, Fragkiskos Papadopoulos
Exploiting path diversity in datacenters using MPTCP-aware SDN
2016 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communication (ISCC)
pdf