Analyzing Controversial Topics within Facebook

Social media plays a significant role in the dissemination of information. Now more than ever, consumers turn to social media sites (SMS) to catch up on current events and share their perspectives. While this form of communication is enjoyed by the public, it also has its drawbacks. Because many perspectives can be captured via SMS, this often leads to public discourse and in some cases, controversy. Misinformation and disinformation continue to spread throughout the internet allowing many consumers to become misinformed. This further elevates such discourse and allows for real issues to be forgotten as online debate spirals out of reality and false information gains traction. Given the issues at hand, this paper seeks to demonstrate a rudimentary measurement of curve fitting as a proof of concept for capturing controversy on Facebook using the reactions of its user base toward controversial topics