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The dark side of online information behavior represents the negative phenomena associated with the management of information in the online environment. With the widespread availability of Internet and the emerging technologies, cyberspace becomes one of the most important channels for people to generate, organize, store, retrieve, acquire, disseminate and utilize information. Recognizing that information can be easily managed online although it causes different types of negative consequences. For example, 87 million Facebook user profiles have been improperly shared and misused by Cambridge Analytica, and online information privacy becomes a worldwide concern in recent years. Online fake news also exerts profound influence on political, economic, and social well-being. With the increasing volume of available information, we also witnessed a society of information overload and information anxiety. At the same time, information violence and harassment foster a hostile online environment. The power of artificial intelligence makes it easier for people to access the information they need, but it also creates information cocoons.
Although there are many dark sides of online information behavior, current studies on this topic are still limited, leaving considerable gaps in the literature, particularly on how to conceptualize and operationalize the dark or unexpected negative sides of online information behaviors, how to theorize the underlying cognitive, psychological and social processes of such behaviors, and how to implement system design and information recognition to avoid negative information behaviors. The objective of this special issue thus is to push the boundaries of information behavior research, and draw the urgent attention of academics and practitioners to this important and fertile area.
We believe this is a topic of challenges faced by multidisciplinary fields such as information systems, library and information science, computer science, marketing, communication and cognitive sciences. This special issue seeks high-quality and original contributions that advance the concepts, methods and theories by exploring the dark side of online information behaviors, and address the mechanisms, strategies and techniques for behavioral interventions. All contributions should clearly address the knowledge gaps indicated in the literature and will be peer-reviewed by the panel of experts associated with relevant field. This special issue is open to submissions from all theoretical and methodological perspectives. We particularly welcome research that challenges the boundaries of traditional academic thinking, integrating and expanding the knowledge rooted in diverse disciplines and within diverse contexts, and comes up with innovative ideas in theorizing and resolving the negative issues related to online information behavior.
The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Misinformation, disinformation and online fake news
* Information addiction, overload and underload
* Information privacy and security concerns
* Technophobia and information anxiety
* Information violence and harassment
* Illegal or unethical information searching, distribution and use
* Deceptive online communication
* Information cocoons and echo-chambers
* Information distractions, disruptions and interruptions
* Counterproductive online information behaviors
* Data-driven negative information extraction, recognition and validation methods
* System design that tracks and solves the above negative issues related to information behavior
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