# Detection and Characterization of Coordinated Online Behavior: A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.01257 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01257/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Aug 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Identifying Coordinated Accounts on Social Media through Hidden Influence and Group Behaviours](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.11308/) (2020)
- [Community Detection in Multiplex Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07646/) (2019)
- [On the Detection of Disinformation Campaign Activity with Network Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.13466/) (2020)
- [Coordinated Behavior on Social Media in 2019 UK General Election](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.08370/) (2020)
- [Unmasking the Web of Deceit: Uncovering Coordinated Activity to Expose Information Operations on Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09884/) (2023)
- [Unveiling Coordinated Groups Behind White Helmets Disinformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01313/) (2020)
- [A General Method to Find Highly Coordinating Communities in Social Media through Inferred Interaction Links](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03409/) (2021)
- [Coordinating Narratives and the Capitol Riots on Parler](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.00945/) (2021)
- [Tracking Fringe and Coordinated Activity on Twitter Leading Up To the US Capitol Attack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04450/) (2023)
- [From Reddit to Wall Street: The role of committed minorities in financial collective action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.07361/) (2021)
- [Evidence of Inter-state Coordination amongst State-backed Information Operations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.05907/) (2023)
- [Cashtag piggybacking: uncovering spam and bot activity in stock microblogs on Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04406/) (2018)
- [Trend Alert: How a Cross-Platform Organization Manipulated Twitter Trends in the Indian General Election](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13259/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised detection of coordinated information operations in the wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06205/) (2024)
- [Coordinated Activity Modulates the Behavior and Emotions of Organic Users: A Case Study on Tweets about the Gaza Conflict](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05873/) (2024)
- [From Curious Hashtags to Polarized Effect: Profiling Coordinated Actions in Indonesian Twitter Discourse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.07937/) (2022)
- [The influence of coordinated behavior on toxicity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01283/) (2023)
- [Unsupervised detection of coordinated fake-follower campaigns on social media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.20407/) (2023)
- [Post-hoc evaluation of nodes influence in information cascades: the case of coordinated accounts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.01684/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [IOHunter: Graph Foundation Model to Uncover Online Information Operations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14663/) (2024)
- [Multimodal Coordinated Online Behavior: Trade-offs and Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.12108/) (2025)
- [Quantifying Feature Importance for Online Content Moderation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.19882/) (2025)
- [Bot Meets Shortcut: How Can LLMs Aid in Handling Unknown Invariance OOD Scenarios?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.08455/) (2025)
- [Generative AI and Digital Ecosystem Resilience: A Proactive Lifecycle-Based Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00136/) (2026)
- [IO Factory: Simulating AI-Enabled Influence Campaigns at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10920/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Coordination is a fundamental aspect of life. The advent of social media has made it integral also to online human interactions, such as those that characterize thriving online communities and social movements. At the same time, coordination is also core to effective disinformation, manipulation, and hate campaigns. This survey collects, categorizes, and critically discusses the body of work produced as a result of the growing interest on coordinated online behavior. We reconcile industry and academic definitions, propose a comprehensive framework to study coordinated online behavior, and review and critically discuss the existing detection and characterization methods. Our analysis identifies open challenges and promising directions of research, serving as a guide for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in understanding and addressing the complexities inherent to online coordination. We also provide an interactive companion website for exploring the surveyed literature.