The influence of cross-platform and spread sources on emotional information spreading in the 2E-SIR two-layer network

To explore the influence of cross-platform and spread sources on emotional information spreading, in this paper, a novel two-layer emotion-based susceptible–infected–recovered network (2E-SIR) is proposed and the state equations for emotional information spreading are constructed. Then, to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the 2E-SIR network and the state equations, taking the negative and positive events on Sina Weibo and TikTok as examples and using two spread sources which are official media (OM) and key opinion leaders (KOL), we have the following conclusions. (1) Users are more willing to spread emotional information similar to the original events’, especially those posted by KOL. (2) The cumulative posting quantities simulated of all the emotional information almost always are consistent with their real data. (3) The outburst rate of positive emotional information, especially posted by OM, is faster than the negative’s. (4) Negative emotional information is more likely to trigger the emotional chaos. Further, parameter sensitivity analysis shows that the cumulative posting quantity on each platform is mainly affected by its own internal parameters. The more initially susceptible people, the more serious the chaos generated by the original information. In addition, increasing the average user circulation probability on the 2E-SIR network will slow down the outbreak rate of emotional information, and enhance the degree of emotion chaos. •A two-layer emotion-based susceptible–infected–recovered network is proposed.•Some state equations for emotional spreading on the proposed network are constructed.•Cross-social-platform spreading of emotional information is investigated.•The influence of different spreading sources is discussed.•Parameter sensitivity analysis in the two-layer network is carried out.