Hardness and Algorithms for Electoral Manipulation Under Media Influence

Liangde Tao, Lin Chen, Lei Xu, Shouhuai Xu, Zhimin Gao, Weidong Shi, Dian Huang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In this paper, we study a generalization of the classic bribery problem known as electoral manipulation under media influence (EMMI). This model is motivated by modern political campaigns where candidates try to convince voters through advertising in media (TV, newspaper, Internet). When compared with the classical bribery problem, the attacker in this setting cannot directly change opinions of individual voters, but instead can execute influences via a set of manipulation strategies (e.g., advertising on a TV channel). Different manipulation strategies incur different costs and influence different subsets of voters. Once receiving a significant amount of influence, a voter will change opinion. To characterize the opinion change of each voter, we adopt the well-accepted threshold model. We prove the NP-hardness of the EMMI problem and give a dynamic programming algorithm that runs in polynomial time for a restricted case of the EMMI problem.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFrontiers of Algorithmics - International Joint Conference, IJTCS-FAW 2021, Proceedings
EditorsJing Chen, Minming Li, Guochuan Zhang
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages53-64
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9783030970987
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event15th International Workshop on Frontiers in Algorithmics, FAW 2021, held in conjunction with 2nd International Joint Conference on Theoretical Computer Science, IJTCS-FAW 2021 - Beijing, China
Duration: Aug 16 2021Aug 19 2021

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12874 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference15th International Workshop on Frontiers in Algorithmics, FAW 2021, held in conjunction with 2nd International Joint Conference on Theoretical Computer Science, IJTCS-FAW 2021
Country/TerritoryChina
CityBeijing
Period08/16/2108/19/21

Keywords

  • Computational Complexity
  • Computational Social Choice
  • Dynamic Programming

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