About

This website is a companion to a research paper on echo chambers in the Brazilian social media platform Colab.re. The phenomenon of echo chambers, in which users are exposed only to information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs and biases, has been widely studied in the context of social media. Echo chambers have a significant impact on political discourse, leading to a decline in political engagement and an erosion of democratic values.

Brazil has one of the highest levels of political polarization in the world, which has been exacerbated by the rise of social media. Colab.re is a Brazilian social media platform that aims to promote participatory democracy, but it also faces the challenge of echo chambers. Users tend to follow and interact primarily with those who share their political views, leading to a narrowing of perspectives and an erosion of democratic values.

This paper proposes a multi-pronged approach to address the problem of echo chambers on Colab.re. The first step is to conduct an exploratory network analysis of the platform, using Louvain clustering, spectral clustering, and eigenvectors to identify echo chambers and their key nodes. Second, we will develop and test algorithms based on digital epidemiology, such as SIR and SEIR models, to predict the spread of information within and between echo chambers. Finally, we will explore the potential of interventions such as nudges and information campaigns to encourage users to engage with content outside of their echo chamber.

This website serves as a platform to share my research findings, insights, and recommendations for policymakers and platform developers to promote greater diversity of perspectives and combat the polarization of political views. This paper makes some contributions to the existing literature on echo chambers and digital democracy, providing a detailed analysis of the echo chamber phenomenon on a Brazilian social media platform and proposing novel approaches to detecting and mitigating the negative effects of echo chambers, drawing on insights from digital epidemiology and behavioral economics.

Thank you for visiting my website, and I hope you find my research informative and thought-provoking. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Software Engineer and curious dude