Soham De

sohamde@uw.edu

I’m a PhD student at the University of Washington and a part of the Center for Informed Public, advised by Martin Saveski. My current research interests are in Computational Social Science, which includes the study of misinformation, social media and information flow in online communities. I’m always open to discuss possible collaborations!

Previously, I interned at Microsoft Research India under Anirban Sen and Joyojeet Pal (UMich Ann Arbor). I graduated magna cum laude from Ashoka University with a Gold Medal in Computer Science. Beyond academics, I’m a competent artist, photographer, archer and an incompetent pianist.

personal updates

Jul 2023	I’ve documented by experience applying to CS/IS PhD programs in this blog. Check it out and let me know if you find it helpful!
Jun 2023	I’m finally happy to share that I’ll be joining the PhD program at UW (iSchool) this Fall, and will be advised by `Martin Saveski`. Hence the color change!
Apr 2023	I visited Ann Arbor and Seattle in April, to attend PhD visit days and organise a conference. At some point, I will add these pictures in my gallery.
Mar 2023	I’m one of the student organisers for `SMSI 2023` and will be in UMSI from April 7-8. Do register for the conference (it’s free!)
Dec 2022	Our work on jounalists, presented by the amazing Sukhnidh Kaur won Best Poster at ACM SIGCHI Symposium for HCI and Friends!

selected works

Closed Ranks: The Discursive Value of Military Support for Indian Politicians

Agrima Seth*, Soham De*, Arshia Arya, and 3 more authors

In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) 2022

Abstract Web PDF

Influencers play a crucial role in shaping public narratives through information creation and diffusion in the Global South. While public figures from various walks of life and their impact on public discourse have been studied, defence veterans as influencers of the political discourse have been largely overlooked. Veterans matter in the public spehere as a normatively important political lobby. They are also interesting because, unlike active-duty military officers, they are not restricted from taking public sides on politics, so their posts may provide a window into the views of those still in the service. In this work, we systematically analyze the engagement on Twitter of self-described defence-related accounts and politician accounts that post on defence-related issues. We find that self-described defence-related accounts disproportionately engage with the current ruling party in India. We find that politicians promote their closeness to the defence services and nationalist credentials through engagements with defence-related influencers. We briefly consider the institutional implications of these patterns and connections
Note: Picking Sides: The influencer-driven #HijabBan discourse on Twitter

Soham De, Anmol Panda, and Joyojeet Pal

In Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) 2022

Abstract Web PDF

Social Media is increasingly central to culture wars, and in recent years has been at the center of debates around the weaponization of peoples’ opinions in polarized situations. We examine one such issue, an attempt to allow schools and junior colleges to ban girls from wearing Hijab in India in the southern state of Karnataka, India, by studying Twitter messaging related to the issue in early 2022, when it was in the news. We find that the narrative supporting the ban of the Hijab on Twitter is primarily driven by a minority of highly-influential individuals who are predominantly male and polarised in favour of the ruling party, while the discourse against the ban relies largely on influencers from within the Muslim community. Our findings show that social media can be a useful tool to craft the contours of politically-motivated escalation in the Global South.
DISMISS: Database of Indian Social Media Influencers on Twitter

Arshia Arya*, Soham De*, Dibyendu Mishra*, and 12 more authors

In Proceedings of the 16th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) 2022

Abstract Web PDF Dataset

Databases of highly networked individuals have been indispensable in studying narratives and influence on social media. To support studies on Twitter in India, we present a systematically categorized database of accounts of influence on Twitter in India, identified and annotated through an iterative process of friends, networks, and self-described profile information, verified manually. We built an initial set of accounts based on the friend network of a seed set of accounts based on real-world renown in various fields, and then snowballed “friends of friends" multiple times, and rank ordered individuals based on the number of in-group connections, and overall followers. We then manually classified identified accounts under the categories of entertainment, sports, business, government, institutions, journalism, civil society accounts that have independent standing outside of social media, as well as a category of “digital first" referring to accounts that derive their primary influence from online activity. Overall, we annotated 11580 unique accounts across all categories. The database is useful studying various questions related to the role of influencers in polarization, misinformation, extreme speech, political discourse etc.