Fake or Real? A Study of Arabic Satirical Fake News

Authors :: Saadany, Hadeel
Mohamed, Emad
Orasan, Constantin
Source :: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Rumours and Deception in Social Media (RDSM) 2020
Publication Year :: 2020
Abstract: One very common type of fake news is satire which comes in a form of a news website or an online platform that parodies reputable real news agencies to create a sarcastic version of reality. This type of fake news is often disseminated by individuals on their online platforms as it has a much stronger effect in delivering criticism than through a straightforward message. However, when the satirical text is disseminated via social media without mention of its source, it can be mistaken for real news. This study conducts several exploratory analyses to identify the linguistic properties of Arabic fake news with satirical content. We exploit these features to build a number of machine learning models capable of identifying satirical fake news with an accuracy of up to 98.6%.<br />Comment: 11 pages

Database :: arXiv
Journal :: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Rumours and Deception in Social Media (RDSM) 2020
Publication Type :: Report
Accession number :: edsarx.2011.00452
Document Type :: Working Paper

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