University of Twente Student Theses

Login
As of Friday, 8 August 2025, the current Student Theses repository is no longer available for thesis uploads. A new Student Theses repository will be available starting Friday, 15 August 2025.

Ranking Influential Reddit Users in the spread of Hate Speech : A BERT and PageRank-based approach

Alcaraz, Carolyn (2025) Ranking Influential Reddit Users in the spread of Hate Speech : A BERT and PageRank-based approach.

This is the latest version of this item.

[img] PDF
728kB
Abstract:Social media, while enabling freedom of expression and mass communication, has also played a significant role in the dissemination of hate speech online. Given its harmful effects, developing strategies to mitigate its spread is essential. One such strategy is to identify key contributors of hate speech on social media. By developing a practical framework for this purpose, policymakers and others alike can gain access to tools that provide deeper insights into the matter. Thus, this paper presents an approach that combines BERT, a powerful Natural Language Processing model, and PageRank, a well-documented and foundational ranking algorithm, to identify influential users in the spread of hate speech on Reddit. When applied to Reddit data from the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, it showed that the dissemination of hate speech was being driven by a central core group of users — users who are often the most active and connected to other influential users. Additionally, thematic analysis via TF-IDF combined with K-Means clustering proved semi-successful in uncovering dominant themes, including immigration, identity politics, and geopolitics. These findings contribute to the broader discourse and ongoing efforts to mitigate online hate speech, thereby facilitating safer online environments.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Subject:54 computer science
Programme:Computer Science BSc (56964)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107572
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page