Culture Matters in Toxic Language Detection in Persian

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03458v1
• Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2025 23:48:07 GMT
• Title: Culture Matters in Toxic Language Detection in Persian
• Authors: Zahra Bokaei, Walid Magdy, Bonnie Webber,
• Abstract summary: toxic language detection has been under-explored in Persian.<n>This paper compares different methods for this task, including fine-tuning, data enrichment, zero-shot and few-shot learning.<n>We show that the language of a country with cultural similarities to Persian yields better results in transfer learning.
• Score: 13.215940567074023
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Toxic language detection is crucial for creating safer online environments and limiting the spread of harmful content. While toxic language detection has been under-explored in Persian, the current work compares different methods for this task, including fine-tuning, data enrichment, zero-shot and few-shot learning, and cross-lingual transfer learning. What is especially compelling is the impact of cultural context on transfer learning for this task: We show that the language of a country with cultural similarities to Persian yields better results in transfer learning. Conversely, the improvement is lower when the language comes from a culturally distinct country. Warning: This paper contains examples of toxic language that may disturb some readers. These examples are included for the purpose of research on toxic detection.

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