A system and method of detecting a source of a rumor in a social media network is disclosed. The social media network includes a plurality of node clusters, each of the plurality of nodes therein having at least one edge connection to a corresponding number of different nodes in the same cluster. The system identifies a plurality of gateway nodes, each having at least one weak tie connection with a corresponding gateway node from a different node cluster; selects a subset of gateway nodes as sensors to measure arrival times of a rumor; and selects a candidate node cluster based on these arrival times. From there, the system selects a set of nodes in the candidate cluster to measure arrival times of a rumor from a source node, and selects a candidate node from the candidate cluster as having a high probability of being the source node.
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