Northeastern study looks to find out what side Twitter lurkers are on

LONDON — When as many as 90% of people on social media are “lurkers,” how can we know what they are consuming? A data scientist at Northeastern University in London was involved in a study recently, published by Nature’s Scientific Reports journal, to find out what type of material the lurkers — those who view social media but do not interact with posts — are viewing. Assistant professor Anees Baqir says the idea came about because of a desire to discover if it was possible to find out what side of the debate the silent majority are on. “If you take a hardcore stance in favor or against a particular topic, like on vaccines for example, you can be classified as pro or against that particular topic,” he says. “Now the point is, if you don’t do that, how do we know for sure which side you are on? How do we know how you are being influenced? That was the initial idea — to find out how the users are being influenced when we don’t know how they are interacting or how they are voicing their concerns. “If there is a protest outside, you will see all these people
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