Categorizing social network objects based on user affiliations

• US 10,013,729 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2017
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kelmenson, Daniel Leon, Willner, David Stewart
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Imad
• Application Number:
  US15/587,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20170243314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 709205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/08 Sorting, i.e. grouping record carriers in numerical or other ordered sequence according to the classification of at least some of the information they carry by merging two or more sets of carriers in ordered sequence G06F7/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety

Abstract

Groups of users of a social networking system are categorized based on their association with a type of malicious activity. A set of predetermined malicious groups is identified. Users associated with the malicious groups are selected based on their level of interactions with the malicious groups. Other groups associated with the selected users are identified as being potentially malicious groups. The potentially malicious groups are further analyzed based on occurrences of keywords associated with the type of malicious activity and manual verification by experts. The potentially malicious groups are either classified as being malicious or non-malicious or assigned a score based on their likelihood of being associated with the type of malicious activity. The methods and system disclosed can be used for categorizing other types of social network objects based on their association with a type of malicious activity, for example, users, events, and content.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

storing a plurality of events and user interactions performed by users of a social networking system with the plurality of events;

associating a set of events of the plurality of events with a category;

selecting a set of users associated with the set of events, comprising, for each event from the set of events;

identifying users performing user interactions with the event,

for each identified user, determining a measure of user interactions of the user with the event, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on a frequency of interaction of the user with the event, and

including the user in the set of users, responsive to the measure of user interactions of the user with the event exceeding a threshold;

selecting a set of candidate events associated with the set of users, based on user interactions of users from the set of users with the candidate events, wherein each candidate event associated with a selected user is selected responsive to interactions of the selected user with the candidate event exceeding a second threshold;

determining whether each candidate event is associated with the category based on keyword occurrences in content associated with each candidate event; and

providing information describing a particular event to a user for performing an action, the information provided based on the category.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein an event corresponds to an entity represented in the social networking system with which users of the social networking system can perform interactions.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein an interaction of a user with an event comprises one or more of the user indicating via an RSVP message whether the user will be attending the event, the user posting information related to the event, the user retrieving a time and location of the event, and the user posting a comment on the event.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on one of a number of interactions of the user with the event and a type of interactions of the user with the event.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the content associated with each candidate event comprises one or more of messages sent by users associated with the candidate event, content uploaded to the social networking system by users associated with the candidate event, and content retrieved from the social networking system by users associated with the candidate event.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that a candidate event is associated with the category, adding the candidate event to the set of events.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending information describing the association of each candidate event with the category to a user for performing an action; and

receiving input verifying the association of each candidate event with the category.

8. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code comprising instructions for:

storing a plurality of events and user interactions performed by users of a social networking system with the plurality of events;

associating a set of events of the plurality of events with a category;

selecting a set of users associated with the set of events, comprising, for each event from the set of events;

identifying users performing user interactions with the event,

for each identified user, determining a measure of user interactions of the user with the event, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on a frequency of interaction of the user with the event, and

including the user in the set of users, responsive to the measure of user interactions of the user with the event exceeding a threshold;

selecting a set of candidate events associated with the set of users, based on user interactions of users from the set of users with the candidate events

determining whether each candidate event is associated with the category based on keyword occurrences in content associated with each candidate event; and

providing information describing a particular event to a user for performing an action, the information provided based on the category.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein each candidate event is selected responsive to interactions of the selected user with the candidate event exceeding a threshold value.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein an event corresponds to an entity represented in the social networking system with which users of the social networking system can perform interactions.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein an interaction of a user with an event comprises one or more of the user indicating via an RSVP message whether the user will be attending the event, the user posting information related to the event, the user retrieving a time and location of the event, and the user posting a comment on the event.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on one of a number of interactions of the user with the event and a type of interactions of the user with the event.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the content associated with each candidate event comprises one or more of messages sent by users associated with the candidate event, content uploaded to the social networking system by users associated with the candidate event, and content retrieved from the social networking system by users associated with the candidate event.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable code further comprises instructions for:

responsive to determining that a candidate event is associated with the category, adding the candidate event to the set of events.

15. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer-executable code further comprises instructions for:

sending information describing the association of each candidate event with the category to a user for performing an action; and

receiving input verifying the association of each candidate event with the category.

16. A computer system comprising:

a computer processor;

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, storing instructions program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for;

storing a plurality of events and user interactions performed by users of a social networking system with the plurality of events;

associating a set of events of the plurality of events with a category;

selecting a set of users associated with the set of events, comprising, for each event from the set of events;

identifying users performing user interactions with the event,

for each identified user, determining a measure of user interactions of the user with the event, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on a frequency of interaction of the user with the event, and

including the user in the set of users, responsive to the measure of user interactions of the user with the event exceeding a threshold;

selecting a set of candidate events associated with the set of users, based on user interactions of users from the set of users with the candidate events

determining whether each candidate event is associated with the category based on keyword occurrences in content associated with each candidate event; and

providing information describing a particular event to a user for performing an action, the information provided based on the category.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein each candidate event associated with a selected user is selected responsive to interactions of the selected user with the candidate event exceeding a threshold value.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein an event corresponds to an entity represented in the social networking system with which users of the social networking system can perform interactions.

19. The computer system of claim 16, wherein an interaction of a user with an event comprises one or more of the user indicating via an RSVP message whether the user will be attending the event, the user posting information related to the event, the user retrieving a time and location of the event, and the user posting a comment on the event.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the measure of user interactions of the user with the event is based on one of a number of interactions of the user with the event and a type of interactions of the user with the event.