Adaptive regulation effectively mitigates the spread of rumors

Abstract Regulation plays a pivotal role in mitigating the spread of rumors, serving as a vital tool for maintaining social stability and facilitating its evolution. A central challenge lies in establishing an effective regulatory framework despite limited resources available for combating rumor propagation. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a dynamic and adaptive regulatory system. First, based on observed regulatory patterns in real-world social networks, the rumor propagation process is divided into two distinct phases: regulation and intervention. Regulatory intensity is introduced as an indicator of user state transitions. Unlike traditional, non-adaptive regulatory models that allocate costs uniformly, the adaptive model facilitates flexible cost distribution through a manageable individual regulatory intensity. Moreover, by introducing adaptive strength, the two cost allocation models are integrated within a unified framework, leading to the development of a dynamic model for rumor suppression. Finally, simulation experiments on Barabási–Albert (BA) networks demonstrate that the adaptive regulatory mechanism significantly reduces both the scope and duration of rumor propagation. Furthermore, when traditional non-adaptive regulatory models show limited effectiveness, the adaptive model effectively curbs rumor propagation by optimizing cost allocation between regulatory and intervention processes, and by adjusting per-unit cost benefit differentials.