Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine

The spread of disinformation has become a critical component of hybrid warfare, particularly in Russia’s war against Ukraine, where social media serves as a battlefield for influence and propaganda. This study develops a comprehensive methodology for classifying disinformation in the context of hybr...

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Main Authors: Halyna Padalko, Vasyl Chomko, Sergiy Yakovlev, Plinio Pelegrini Morita
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Aerospace University «Kharkiv Aviation Institute» 2024-11-01
Series:Радіоелектронні і комп'ютерні системи
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Online Access:http://nti.khai.edu/ojs/index.php/reks/article/view/2648
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author Halyna Padalko
Vasyl Chomko
Sergiy Yakovlev
Plinio Pelegrini Morita
author_facet Halyna Padalko
Vasyl Chomko
Sergiy Yakovlev
Plinio Pelegrini Morita
author_sort Halyna Padalko
collection DOAJ
description The spread of disinformation has become a critical component of hybrid warfare, particularly in Russia’s war against Ukraine, where social media serves as a battlefield for influence and propaganda. This study develops a comprehensive methodology for classifying disinformation in the context of hybrid warfare, focusing on Russia’s war against Ukraine. The objective of this study is to address the challenges of disinformation detection, particularly the increased spread of propaganda due to hybrid warfare. The study focuses on the use of transformer-based language models, specifically, XLNet, to classify multilingual, context-sensitive disinformation. The tasks of this study are to analyze current research and develop a methodology to effectively classify disinformation using the XLNet model. The proposed methodology includes several key components: data preprocessing to ensure quality, application of XLNet for training on diverse datasets, and hyperparameter optimization to handle the complexities of disinformation data. The study used datasets containing pro-Russian and neutral/pro-Ukrainian tweets, and the XLNet model demonstrated strong performance metrics, including high precision, recall, and F1-scores across different dataset sizes. Results showed that accuracy initially improved with increasing data volume but declined slightly with numerous datasets, suggesting the need for balancing data quality and quantity. The proposed methodology addresses the gaps in automated disinformation detection by integrating transformer-based models with advanced preprocessing and training techniques. This research improves the capacity for real-time detection and analysis of disinformation, thus contributing to public information governance and strategic communication efforts during wartime.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1814-4225
2663-2012
language English
publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher National Aerospace University «Kharkiv Aviation Institute»
record_format Article
series Радіоелектронні і комп'ютерні системи
spelling doaj-art-316ebfd99aea465b97e7593b1a9f90a42025-01-06T10:47:18ZengNational Aerospace University «Kharkiv Aviation Institute»Радіоелектронні і комп'ютерні системи1814-42252663-20122024-11-0120244465810.32620/reks.2024.4.042353Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against UkraineHalyna Padalko0Vasyl Chomko1Sergiy Yakovlev2Plinio Pelegrini Morita3National Aerospace University "Kharkiv Aviation Institute," Kharkiv, Ukraine; University of Waterloo, Waterloo; Research Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs, WaterlooSystems Design Engineering at the University of WaterlooDeputy Director of Institute of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine; Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, PolandAssociate Professor, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, WaterlooThe spread of disinformation has become a critical component of hybrid warfare, particularly in Russia’s war against Ukraine, where social media serves as a battlefield for influence and propaganda. This study develops a comprehensive methodology for classifying disinformation in the context of hybrid warfare, focusing on Russia’s war against Ukraine. The objective of this study is to address the challenges of disinformation detection, particularly the increased spread of propaganda due to hybrid warfare. The study focuses on the use of transformer-based language models, specifically, XLNet, to classify multilingual, context-sensitive disinformation. The tasks of this study are to analyze current research and develop a methodology to effectively classify disinformation using the XLNet model. The proposed methodology includes several key components: data preprocessing to ensure quality, application of XLNet for training on diverse datasets, and hyperparameter optimization to handle the complexities of disinformation data. The study used datasets containing pro-Russian and neutral/pro-Ukrainian tweets, and the XLNet model demonstrated strong performance metrics, including high precision, recall, and F1-scores across different dataset sizes. Results showed that accuracy initially improved with increasing data volume but declined slightly with numerous datasets, suggesting the need for balancing data quality and quantity. The proposed methodology addresses the gaps in automated disinformation detection by integrating transformer-based models with advanced preprocessing and training techniques. This research improves the capacity for real-time detection and analysis of disinformation, thus contributing to public information governance and strategic communication efforts during wartime.http://nti.khai.edu/ojs/index.php/reks/article/view/2648hybrid warfaredisinformation detectionmachine learningxlnetsocial media analysistransformer models
spellingShingle Halyna Padalko
Vasyl Chomko
Sergiy Yakovlev
Plinio Pelegrini Morita
Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
Радіоелектронні і комп'ютерні системи
hybrid warfare
disinformation detection
machine learning
xlnet
social media analysis
transformer models
title Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
title_full Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
title_fullStr Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
title_full_unstemmed Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
title_short Classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare: an application of XLNet during the Russia’s war against Ukraine
title_sort classification of disinformation in hybrid warfare an application of xlnet during the russia s war against ukraine
topic hybrid warfare
disinformation detection
machine learning
xlnet
social media analysis
transformer models
url http://nti.khai.edu/ojs/index.php/reks/article/view/2648
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AT sergiyyakovlev classificationofdisinformationinhybridwarfareanapplicationofxlnetduringtherussiaswaragainstukraine
AT pliniopelegrinimorita classificationofdisinformationinhybridwarfareanapplicationofxlnetduringtherussiaswaragainstukraine