COMET: Weak-tie hypothesis in complex digital networks

Masoud Fatemi, Mikko Laitinen and Pasi Fränti have been awarded the Best Paper prize at ISKE2025 conference in China! The title of the paper is “Clustering Digital Ego Networks by Tie Strength: A Scalable, Platform-independent Method”.

Abstract:

This study presents a scalable method to classify online social networks based on tie strength. Utilizing ego networks from Twitter, we applied four measurable features—interaction strength, relative interaction strength, social similarity, and outlier ratio—to cluster over 8,000 networks into four categories: weak, moderately-weak, moderately-strong, and strong ties. Our approach is not platform-dependent and overcomes the limitations of previous methods that relied on fixed thresholds or manual labeling. The results reveal regional and gender-based differences in tie strength patterns: Nordic users tend to form weaker ties, while users in Australia, the UK, and the US are more likely to build stronger-tie networks. Male users dominate across all tie categories, while female and uncategorized users are more common in weaker networks. The findings can support research in online social behavior, content delivery, and information diffusion.