Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media

Online social media has seen a significant increase in usage over the last decade, enabling people to communicate more easily. The vast amount of data generated by these platforms is mostly uncontrolled and unmanageable. This has also provided opportunities for individuals to engage in hate speech a...

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Main Authors: Fetahi Endrit, Hamiti Mentor, Susuri Arsim, Zenuni Xhemal, Ajdari Jaumin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2024-12-01
Series:SEEU Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2024-0025
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author Fetahi Endrit
Hamiti Mentor
Susuri Arsim
Zenuni Xhemal
Ajdari Jaumin
author_facet Fetahi Endrit
Hamiti Mentor
Susuri Arsim
Zenuni Xhemal
Ajdari Jaumin
author_sort Fetahi Endrit
collection DOAJ
description Online social media has seen a significant increase in usage over the last decade, enabling people to communicate more easily. The vast amount of data generated by these platforms is mostly uncontrolled and unmanageable. This has also provided opportunities for individuals to engage in hate speech and offensive language on these platforms. To address this issue, this research aims to conduct extensive experiments using machine learning models and handcrafted feature extraction in the low-resource language Albanian. We utilized several machine-learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB), Random Forest (RF), and Logistic Regression (LR), and extracted a considerable number of handcrafted features. To improve accuracy, we carefully performed feature selection to identify the most relevant features for detecting hate speech in the Albanian language. The results show that LR performed best in terms of accuracy, with an F1 score of 76.77. Using Random Forest feature ranking and SHAP analysis revealed that many comments on Albanian social media exhibit unique characteristics, resulting in a large feature set. This suggests that there is no clear pattern for the machine learning models to accurately flag the comments, indicating that Albanian is linguistically challenging to analyze.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1857-8462
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Sciendo
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series SEEU Review
spelling doaj-art-15aac03c695a43eb8a87459881ae6d372025-02-02T15:49:09ZengSciendoSEEU Review1857-84622024-12-01192809210.2478/seeur-2024-0025Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social MediaFetahi Endrit0Hamiti Mentor1Susuri Arsim2Zenuni Xhemal3Ajdari Jaumin41Faculty of Contemporary Sciences and Technologies South East European University, Tetovo, North Macedonia1Faculty of Contemporary Sciences and Technologies South East European University, Tetovo, North Macedonia2Faculty of Computer Sciences Uninversity of Prizren Ukshin Hoti, Prizren, Kosovo1Faculty of Contemporary Sciences and Technologies South East European University, Tetovo, North Macedonia1Faculty of Contemporary Sciences and Technologies South East European University, Tetovo, North MacedoniaOnline social media has seen a significant increase in usage over the last decade, enabling people to communicate more easily. The vast amount of data generated by these platforms is mostly uncontrolled and unmanageable. This has also provided opportunities for individuals to engage in hate speech and offensive language on these platforms. To address this issue, this research aims to conduct extensive experiments using machine learning models and handcrafted feature extraction in the low-resource language Albanian. We utilized several machine-learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB), Random Forest (RF), and Logistic Regression (LR), and extracted a considerable number of handcrafted features. To improve accuracy, we carefully performed feature selection to identify the most relevant features for detecting hate speech in the Albanian language. The results show that LR performed best in terms of accuracy, with an F1 score of 76.77. Using Random Forest feature ranking and SHAP analysis revealed that many comments on Albanian social media exhibit unique characteristics, resulting in a large feature set. This suggests that there is no clear pattern for the machine learning models to accurately flag the comments, indicating that Albanian is linguistically challenging to analyze.https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2024-0025hate speech detectionmachine learninghandcrafted featuresalbaniansocial media
spellingShingle Fetahi Endrit
Hamiti Mentor
Susuri Arsim
Zenuni Xhemal
Ajdari Jaumin
Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
SEEU Review
hate speech detection
machine learning
handcrafted features
albanian
social media
title Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
title_full Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
title_fullStr Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
title_full_unstemmed Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
title_short Integrating Handcrafted Features with Machine Learning for Hate Speech Detection in Albanian Social Media
title_sort integrating handcrafted features with machine learning for hate speech detection in albanian social media
topic hate speech detection
machine learning
handcrafted features
albanian
social media
url https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2024-0025
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AT hamitimentor integratinghandcraftedfeatureswithmachinelearningforhatespeechdetectioninalbaniansocialmedia
AT susuriarsim integratinghandcraftedfeatureswithmachinelearningforhatespeechdetectioninalbaniansocialmedia
AT zenunixhemal integratinghandcraftedfeatureswithmachinelearningforhatespeechdetectioninalbaniansocialmedia
AT ajdarijaumin integratinghandcraftedfeatureswithmachinelearningforhatespeechdetectioninalbaniansocialmedia