Emilio Ferrara is an Italian-American computer scientist, researcher, and professor in the field of data science and social networks. As of 2022, he serves as a Full Professor at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

(USC), in the Viterbi School of Engineering and

USC Annenberg School for Communication The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a part of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It has 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students. Willow Bay is the dean. Prof. Hector Amaya is the Director of the Sc ...

, where he conducts research on computational social science, network science, and machine learning. Ferrara is known for his work in the detection of

social bot A social bot, also described as a social AI or social algorithm, is a software agent that communicates autonomously on social media. The messages (e.g. tweets) it distributes can be simple and operate in groups and various configurations with ...

s and the analysis of

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...

on social media platforms.

Early life, education, and career

Emilio Ferrara received his Bachelor's degree, Master's degree, and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Messina. During his doctoral studies, Ferrara spent one semester at the Technical University of Vienna and two semesters at the

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

. While a visiting Ph.D. student at the TU Vienna, Ferrara studied data mining in the research group of Professor Georg Gottlob. At

, he studied machine learning under the supervision of Professor Alberto Paccanaro. After completing his doctoral studies, Ferrara held various academic positions, first at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

and then at the

, where, in 2022, he was promoted to Full Professor.

Research

Ferrara's research focuses on computational social science,

network science Network science is an academic field which studies complex networks such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, Cognitive network, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks, considering distinct eleme ...

, and

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

, with an emphasis on understanding and modeling human behavior in

online social networks A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods ...

. He has made significant contributions to the areas of

detection, political manipulation, the analysis of

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

, and

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

, the dynamics of emotional contagion on social media platforms, and

generative AI Generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that uses generative models to produce text, images, videos, or other forms of data. These models learn the underlying patterns and str ...

bias.

Awards and honors

Emilio Ferrara has received numerous awards and honors for his research, including: * The 2016

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

Young Faculty Award * The 2017 Complex Systems Society Junior Scientific Award * The 2019 Viterbi Junior Faculty Research Award * The 2022 Research.com Rising Stars of Science * He was elected AAAI Fellow in the 2025 Class

Influence on US Senate investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US Election

Ferrara's research contributed to the understanding of the extent and impact of foreign interference in the 2016 US Presidential election. His paper titled "Social bots distort the 2016 US Presidential election online discussion," which was the only peer-reviewed paper published before the November 8, 2016 election, investigated the influence operations carried out by Russia's Internet Research Agency by means of social bots on Twitter. The paper suggested that social bots had a notable impact on the dynamics of the online conversation surrounding the election, potentially manipulating public opinion and shaping the discourse. This work provided insights into how social bots were utilized as a tool for information warfare and highlighted the potential consequences of their unchecked proliferation on social media platforms. Ferrara's findings attracted the attention of the US Senate, which cited his research during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His work contributed to the understanding of the scope and tactics used by foreign actors to sway public opinion and played a role in shaping the response to this challenge to the democratic process.

Twitter vs. Musk Litigation

Ferrara served as an expert trial witness for the

Delaware Court of Chancery The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Supreme Court and Superior Court. Since 2018, the court consists of seven judges. The cour ...

on the subject of false and spam accounts in the context of the litigation between

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrara, Emilio American computer scientists Italian computer scientists Complex systems scientists University of Southern California faculty Living people Network scientists Year of birth missing (living people)