Strategies for Controlling Negative Content on Social Media: A Game Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

With the increase of social network users, using social media platforms has become an indispensable part of every individual's life, but the explosive growth in the amount of information has also increased the difficulty of governing detrimental content on social media platforms. Maintaining a good network environment requires not only proper guidance from the government but also the joint efforts of social media platforms and online users. This paper innovatively divides network users into information producers and information consumers and establishes a tripartite game model with social media platforms. This paper aimed to find out the important factors that are affecting the dissemination of detrimental information by analyzing the changes in equilibrium. The paper suggests that the government can directly influence the operation of social media platforms by adopting different policies, and it is important to grasp the strictness of the policies. Secondly, ordinary social media users are a force to be reckoned with in the process of governing negative information. Finally, what kind of content an information producer publishes depends not only on the revenue but also on the risk he will face. Based on the above findings, this paper offers suggestions on the governance of bad information from the perspectives of the government and the three game players.