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Designing and developing an application for online hate speech detection on social media

Åberg, Simon LU and Hedlund, Ludwig (2021) INTM01 20211
Innovation Engineering
Abstract
Social media platforms have a significant impact on the world. Through connecting
people over the globe, social media has resulted in multiple positive effects.
However, the impact is not only beneficial. Social media platforms have also caused
polarization and criminal uprisings, leading to events such as the Rohingya genocide
in Burma. By tracking the discourse on social media channels, it is possible to get
insights into societal movements and warnings about what is to come. However, the
massive number of conversations that occur on social media channels can be hard
to analyze. Especially for NGOs, which commonly has strained resources and
budgets.
This study aims to research how tools can be developed to help NGOs and similar
... (More)
Social media platforms have a significant impact on the world. Through connecting
people over the globe, social media has resulted in multiple positive effects.
However, the impact is not only beneficial. Social media platforms have also caused
polarization and criminal uprisings, leading to events such as the Rohingya genocide
in Burma. By tracking the discourse on social media channels, it is possible to get
insights into societal movements and warnings about what is to come. However, the
massive number of conversations that occur on social media channels can be hard
to analyze. Especially for NGOs, which commonly has strained resources and
budgets.
This study aims to research how tools can be developed to help NGOs and similar
organizations in their work towards finding threats from online activity, as well as
analyzing the general discourse in a subject. The contribution of this research is twofold: (1) The paper investigates how the NGO Civil Rights Defenders is currently
working with analytics of social media and how their work can be helped. This is
done by interviews with Civil Rights Defenders, and the results are presented in two
user scenarios and use cases. (2) A tool is developed for helping Civil Rights
Defenders improve their work within social media analysis. This is done through a
literature review of adjacent research and the current state of technology, as well as
using insights from interviews. The collected information is then used to build a
fully working web application, targeted mainly towards NGOs and their work in
fighting hate speech online.
The developed tool was tested, and the results were satisfactory. The testers were
able to use the tool without much, if any, confusion, and the tool provided help in
their workflow. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Åberg, Simon LU and Hedlund, Ludwig
supervisor
organization
course
INTM01 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
AI, Big Data, Hate Speech, NGO, Machine Learning, Social Media, Twitter
language
English
id
9061533
date added to LUP
2021-08-18 14:05:27
date last changed
2021-08-18 14:05:27
@misc{9061533,
  abstract     = {{Social media platforms have a significant impact on the world. Through connecting
people over the globe, social media has resulted in multiple positive effects.
However, the impact is not only beneficial. Social media platforms have also caused
polarization and criminal uprisings, leading to events such as the Rohingya genocide
in Burma. By tracking the discourse on social media channels, it is possible to get
insights into societal movements and warnings about what is to come. However, the
massive number of conversations that occur on social media channels can be hard
to analyze. Especially for NGOs, which commonly has strained resources and
budgets.
This study aims to research how tools can be developed to help NGOs and similar
organizations in their work towards finding threats from online activity, as well as
analyzing the general discourse in a subject. The contribution of this research is twofold: (1) The paper investigates how the NGO Civil Rights Defenders is currently
working with analytics of social media and how their work can be helped. This is
done by interviews with Civil Rights Defenders, and the results are presented in two
user scenarios and use cases. (2) A tool is developed for helping Civil Rights
Defenders improve their work within social media analysis. This is done through a
literature review of adjacent research and the current state of technology, as well as
using insights from interviews. The collected information is then used to build a
fully working web application, targeted mainly towards NGOs and their work in
fighting hate speech online.
The developed tool was tested, and the results were satisfactory. The testers were
able to use the tool without much, if any, confusion, and the tool provided help in
their workflow.}},
  author       = {{Åberg, Simon and Hedlund, Ludwig}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Designing and developing an application for online hate speech detection on social media}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}