A Logic for Knowledge Flow in Social Networks

Abstract. In this paper, we develop a formal framework for analysing the flow of information and knowledge through social networks. Specifi-cally, we propose a multi-agent epistemic logic in which we can represent and reason about communicative actions based on social networks and the resulting knowledge and ignorance of agents. We apply this logic to formally analyse the “Revolt or Stay-at-home ” problem known from the literature, where social networks play an important role in agents ’ knowl-edge acquisition and decision-making. We evaluate our work by proving some mathematical properties of our new logic, including the fact that it generalises the existing Logic of Public Announcement.