Deception patterns on Social Media

Abstract: The presence of social media has led to the emergence of deception patterns based on social media characteristics which all influence its users. Social media is the new norm in society and the service providers there continue to struggle with addressing these patterns as well as try to protect their users from being influenced by deception based on social media characteristics. In this study, we draw on related literature to conceptualise a model which delineates eight social media characteristics used in deception as privacy, identity, presence, relationship, reputation, groups, conversation and sharing. This model is evaluated using data collected from eight social media users and interview transcripts from the Zuckerberg files between the years 2004 and 2020. The results show that deception in social media is patterned around personal information and false identities, among others. The results also show that trust and strength of ties are among the reasons why users are influenced into deception