Developing a Conceptual Framework for Modeling Deviant Cyber Flash Mob: A Socio-Computational Approach Leveraging Hypergraph Constructs

Abstract

In a Flash Mob (FM) a group of people get together in the physical world perform an unpredicted act and disperse quickly. Cyber Flash Mob (CFM) is the cyber manifestation of flash mob coordinated primarily using social media. Deviant Cyber Flash Mob (or, DCFM) is a special case of CFM, which is categorized as the new face of transnational crime organizations (TCOs). The DCFM phenomenon can be considered as a form of a cyber-collective action that is defined as an action aiming to improve group's conditions (such as, status or power). In this paper, we conduct a conceptual analysis of the DCFMs and model the factors that lead to success or failure with groundings in collective action and collective identity formation theories. Mathematical constructs of hypergraph are leveraged to represent the complex relations observed in the DCFM social networks. The model's efficacy is demonstrated through a test scenario.