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The 5G COVID-19 Digital Wildfire: An evolving network of Twitter contacts to explore phase transition metaphors in viral misinformation

Fig 7

Correlation between total contacts and the fraction attributable to the most active users, gauged by degree centrality.

The left subplot reveals the percentage of vertices in relation to the total number in an accumulative slice with a interval, marking the transition around slice 63. The changing ratio of connections during this transition suggests that highly active users interact with a larger set of distinct users compared to those with lower activity levels. Furthermore, the figure indicates a potential predictor around slice 45, which appears to be primarily noticeable to the active users. The right hand plot presents the same relationship for the temporal slices with . Here, we observe similar patterns as on the left. Additionally, the gap becomes apparent between the most active 2% of users and the most active 5%, 10%, or 20% between slices 350 and 470, underlining the influential role of a small proportion of highly active users in shaping the network dynamics. The timeframe of the “Critical Area” (arson attacks and real-world consequences) aligns with the transition observed around slice 63 (left) and slices 360-390 (right).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343661.g007