Proposing a Hybrid Model to Enhance the Prediction of Arabic Fake News: A Comparative Analysis

Authors

  • Khaldoon H. Al-Hussayni Cybersecurity Department, Information Technology College, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq.
  • Amina A. Dawood Computer Centre, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq.
  • Ahmed Al-Azawei Software Department, Information Technology College, University of Babylon, Babil, Iraq.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22401/ANJS.29.2.10

Keywords:

Fake news detection , Arabic language , Deep learning , CNN , BiLSTM , GRU , AraBERT

Abstract

The spread of fake news within social media networks in recent years is seen as a troublesome element in the flow of public information. Malicious actors, such as some media professionals, use fabricated stories to influence vulnerable social groups. In this paper, a hybrid model is proposed to identify disinformation in Arabic language material. A pre-training algorithmic framework for detection and categorization of fake news is developed using deep learning approaches based on the Arabic Fake News Dataset (AFND) with approximately 374,000 labeled articles (80% training and 20% testing). The proposed model was compared with baseline architectures, such as CNN-BiLSTM, CNN-BiGRU, standalone recurrent networks, and pretrained language models, such as AraBERT, MARBERTv2, and AraELECTRA. The results show that the hybrid AraBERT-BiLSTM model outperforms all baseline architectures with 98.16%, 98.16%, 98.16%, and 96.58% accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, respectively. This is because AraBERT offers rich contextual embeddings that extract the deep semantic and syntactic nuances of Arabic text. Additionally, the model interpretability was improved by using Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME) to identify the important linguistic features driving predictions.

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Published

2026-06-15

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Articles

How to Cite

(1)
H. Al-Hussayni, K. .; A. Dawood, A. .; Al-Azawei, A. . Proposing a Hybrid Model to Enhance the Prediction of Arabic Fake News: A Comparative Analysis. Al-Nahrain J. Sci. 2026, 29 (2), 120-133. https://doi.org/10.22401/ANJS.29.2.10.