O Paradoxo da Viralização de Informação Criptografada no WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a mobile communication system that allows people to interact through groups. In this work, we analyze the dissemination of information within a group network that simulates the WhatsApp network. The built network considers two types of groups: organic groups, formed by friends and family, and artificial groups that are usually created with the purpose of being a mean of spreading certain subject or event, such as political campaigns. We analyzed the speed with which information is spread in this network considering the epidemiological model Susceptible-Infected (SI). We then deepen our analysis in order to identify parameters that cause this scattering to be partially controlled in order to make it difficult to propagate fake news in these networks. Our results quantify the viralization ability of content in WhatsApp and identify aspects that could limit such ability to prevent the platform from being abused in election periods.