Authorship Studies and the Dark Side of Social Media Analytics

The computational analysis of documents to learn about their authorship (also known as authorship attribution and/or authorship profiling) is an increasingly important area of research and application of technology. This paper discusses the technology, focusing on its application to social media in a variety of disciplines. It includes a brief survey of the history as well as three tutorial case studies, and discusses several significant applications and societal benefits that authorship analysis has brought about. It further argues, though, that while the benefits of this technology have been great, it has created serious risks to society that have not been sufficiently considered, addressed, or mitigated.