Decentralizing Social Data: A Blockchain-Based Approach to Transparent and Trustworthy Social Networks

The rise of online social network (OSN) platforms has revealed pivotal issues with regards to data transparency and the concerns on the user’s consent. Users are barely aware of how their data is used. To this end, this paper investigates the notion of applying blockchain technology for decentralizing social data, thus bringing more privacy and trust to the abstract concept of OSN platforms. We propose a Blockchain-Based Distributed Social Network System (B2DSN) that uses Hyperledger Fabric and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to secure sovereignty rights of data and offer greater control to users’ data subjects. Hyperledger fabric is used to collect friends and data that are analyzed from social networks. We integrate consensus and verification methods directly within topic-based communities to provide trustworthiness of OSN platforms and eliminate the dissemination of rumors, and fake news. The feasibility of B2DSN is proved based on the integration of decentralized overlay network data flow, data sovereignty and verification and topic-based communities. The experimental simulation for data integrity demonstrates that the B2DSN model based on blockchain is feasible in securing and verifying the authenticity of social data even for large-scale OSNs.