AN ENSEMBLE-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR DETECTING FAKE NEWS AND MITIGATING DIGITAL MISINFORMATION

Authors
  • W. Lawal

    Department of Information and Communication Technology, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, PMB 704, Nigeria

Keywords:
Fake news, Machine learning, BERT, CNN-RNN, LIAR dataset, Deep learning, Natural language processing
Abstract

Fake news is considered a serious threat to trust and stability in the digital age. To address this issue, a robust ensemble learning model comprising Naive Bayes, CNN-RNN, and fine-tuned BERT was proposed to detect fake news with improved accuracy and robustness. Although similar combinations of models have been reported in the literature, the novelty of our proposed paradigm lies in the integration method: we use soft voting with weight-tuned performance to maximise the effectiveness of ensemble models across various linguistic categories of the LIAR dataset. In addition, we use F2-score as a performance enhancer, a focus not felt in previous studies. F2-score is especially important in detecting fake news, as it helps minimise false negatives and reduce the risk of spreading false news. The framework captures the slow grammar and contextual semantics of lexical and contextual word meanings, thereby allowing us to accurately classify real-world fake news. In LIAR, the ensemble model achieves 90% accuracy, 90% F1-score, and 91% F2-score on the benchmark dataset. This shows how multi-model synergy can be useful to counter misinformation. It provides an ethically grounded, flexible, and interpretable ensemble system applicable to online media and social media.

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AN ENSEMBLE-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR DETECTING FAKE NEWS AND MITIGATING DIGITAL MISINFORMATION. (2026). FUTA JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY, 20(Special), 135-151. https://doi.org/10.51459/futajeet.2026.20.Special.579

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