SubmissionNumber#=%=#214
FinalPaperTitle#=%=#Pauk at SemEval-2024 Task 4: A Neuro-Symbolic Method for Consistent Classification of Propaganda Techniques in Memes
ShortPaperTitle#=%=#
NumberOfPages#=%=#11
CopyrightSigned#=%=#Matt Pauk
JobTitle#==#
Organization#==#University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract#==#Memes play a key role in most modern informa-
tion campaigns, particularly propaganda cam-
paigns. Identifying the persuasive techniques
present in memes is an important step in de-
veloping systems to recognize and curtail pro-
paganda. This work presents a framework to
identify the persuasive techniques present in
memes for the SemEval 2024 Task 4, according
to a hierarchical taxonomy of propaganda tech-
niques. The framework involves a knowledge
distillation method, where the base model is a
combination of DeBERTa and ResNET used
to classify the text and image, and the teacher
model consists of a group of weakly enforced
logic rules that promote the hierarchy of per-
suasion techniques. The addition of the logic
rule layer for knowledge distillation shows im-
provement in respecting the hierarchy of the
taxonomy with a slight boost in performance.
Author{1}{Firstname}#=%=#Matt
Author{1}{Lastname}#=%=#Pauk
Author{1}{Username}#=%=#mppauk
Author{1}{Email}#=%=#matt.pauk@colorado.edu
Author{1}{Affiliation}#=%=#University of Colorado - Boulder
Author{2}{Firstname}#=%=#Maria Leonor
Author{2}{Lastname}#=%=#Pacheco
Author{2}{Username}#=%=#pachecog
Author{2}{Email}#=%=#maria.pacheco@colorado.edu
Author{2}{Affiliation}#=%=#University of Colorado Boulder / Microsoft Research

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