OPIU: Opinion propagation in online social networks using influential users impact

The current research in opinion propagation is largely based on content analysis of social interactions of users on a network. However, the social power of users in propagating the opinion is not considered. In this paper, we study the impact of influential users on propagating the opinion on singed networks and propose an opinion propagation model considering influential users (OPIU). In particular, we identified two major factors involved in a user opinion propagation: (i) the influential users' effect, induced by the presence of a highly confident individual in the network, and (ii) the neighbors' effect, caused by the presence of the users who have a link with the current user. To assess the performance of the proposed method, we applied it to two large datasets of Epinions signed and Etsy unsigned networks. The results are compared with similar opinion propagation algorithm which indicates the influential users have a significant impact on propagation and considering them can effectively improve the propagation extend.