Id |
Subject |
Object |
Predicate |
Lexical cue |
T200 |
0-4 |
Sentence |
denotes |
3.3. |
T201 |
5-49 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Intervention Dilemma in Blocking Information |
T202 |
50-232 |
Sentence |
denotes |
We assume the government will block any transmission of under-the-blocking-threshold (XB) information between individuals; thus, XB=0 denotes the special case in previous discussion. |
T203 |
233-270 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Other settings are the same as above. |
T204 |
271-359 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In this part, we will discuss the optimal blocking strategies and analyze the mechanism. |
T205 |
360-438 |
Sentence |
denotes |
As shown in Figure 5, the optimal blocking threshold varies from case to case. |
T206 |
439-775 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Overall, a small blocking threshold ([0.1,0.3]) is necessarily (100%) not optimal; a strict blocking threshold (XB≥0.8) is usually (50.41%) optimal, experimental data show a value between 45% and 55% in most external conditions; but 0 is the optimal threshold still in 20.25% of cases, and usually (89.80%) occurs when ξ≥0.8 and XI≤0.7. |
T207 |
776-860 |
Sentence |
denotes |
When the initial information is low (ξ≤0.6), not blocking is seldom (0.83%) optimal. |
T208 |
861-910 |
Sentence |
denotes |
We have our key findings from the above analysis. |
T209 |
911-1161 |
Sentence |
denotes |
First, minor blocking is not an option for government because it is dominated by stricter blocking in a deteriorated or being deteriorated information environment and undermines the efficiency of information dissemination in a benevolent environment. |
T210 |
1162-1435 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Second, in the age of the Internet, information is extremely interconnected and low-quality information is more easily disseminated, thus stricter information blocking might be an option worth considering in the early stages of an outbreak of an unknown infectious disease. |
T211 |
1436-1730 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Finally, if the virus is well-known at the medical level, plus the public has a certain level of health awareness, free spread of information might improve the situation; while, otherwise, as in the case of COVID-19, governments should intervene in the spread of information in social networks. |
T212 |
1731-1869 |
Sentence |
denotes |
From the simulation results, we can see that, in most cases, the optimal strategy will be either highly stringent blocking or free spread. |
T213 |
1870-2029 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Blocking low-quality information not only increases the overall information of the whole population, but causes side effects under certain external conditions. |
T214 |
2030-2090 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Thus, not blocking can be an optimal strategy in some cases. |
T215 |
2091-2179 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In this section, we provide an in-depth analysis of the data and a mechanistic analysis. |
T216 |
2180-2439 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Figure 5b reveals in general the optimal blocking threshold negatively correlates with initial information: as initial information drops from 1 to 0.4, the probability of optimal blocking threshold taking 0 will be 52.07%, 27.27%, 1.65%, and 0%, respectively. |
T217 |
2440-2539 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Figure 5c shows a positive correlation between optimal blocking threshold and individual threshold. |
T218 |
2540-2723 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Governments block information mainly by suppressing less-accurate information, but which, once implemented, will slow down the overall information dissemination in the network anyway. |
T219 |
2724-2829 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Therefore, blocking can neither be too stringent nor too liberal, an optimal one usually lies in between. |
T220 |
2830-2930 |
Sentence |
denotes |
However, mild blocking is necessarily not optimal as it fails to purify the information environment. |
T221 |
2931-3087 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Furthermore, when the virus is well-known (ξ=1), especially when public health awareness is high (XI≤0.3), not blocking dominates most of the time (69.70%). |
T222 |
3088-3299 |
Sentence |
denotes |
While stringent blocking (XB≥0.8) is necessarily not (0%) an optimal strategy because higher-quality information, which helps to slow the spread of the disease with high public health awareness, is also blocked. |
T223 |
3300-3490 |
Sentence |
denotes |
Thus, when both the initial information and the level of public health awareness are at a high level, not blocking is optimal; otherwise, information that would not cause panic might do now. |
T224 |
3491-3634 |
Sentence |
denotes |
In addition, when medical awareness of the virus declines, so does the proportion of valuable information, which necessitates blocking as well. |