TY - JOUR A2 - Wang, Wei AU - Huang, Da-Wen AU - Yang, Lu-Xing AU - Yang, Xiaofan AU - Tang, Yuan Yan AU - Bi, Jichao PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/30 TI - Defending against Online Social Network Rumors through Optimal Control Approach SP - 6263748 VL - 2020 AB - Rumors have been widely spread in online social networks and they become a major concern in modern society. This paper is devoted to the design of a cost-effective rumor-containing scheme in online social networks through an optimal control approach. First, a new individual-based rumor spreading model is proposed, and the model considers the influence of the external environment on rumor spreading for the first time. Second, the cost-effectiveness is recommended to balance the loss caused by rumors against the cost of a rumor-containing scheme. On this basis, we reduce the original problem to an optimal control model. Next, we prove that this model is solvable, and we present the optimality system for the model. Finally, we show that the resulting rumor-containing scheme is cost-effective through extensive computer experiments. SN - 1026-0226 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6263748 DO - 10.1155/2020/6263748 JF - Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society PB - Hindawi KW - ER -