NCI Binary Detector

Fast binary classifier that detects whether text contains propaganda techniques.

Model Description

This model is Stage 1 of the NCI (Narrative Credibility Index) two-stage propaganda detection pipeline:

• Stage 1 (this model): Fast binary detection - "Does this text contain propaganda?"
• Stage 2: Multi-label technique classification - "Which specific techniques are used?"

The binary detector serves as a fast filter with high recall, passing flagged content to the more detailed technique classifier.

Labels

Performance

Test Set Results:

Usage

Basic Usage

from transformers import pipeline

detector = pipeline(
    "text-classification",
    model="synapti/nci-binary-detector"
)

text = "The radical left is DESTROYING our country!"
result = detector(text)[0]

print(f"Label: {result['label']}")  # 'has_propaganda' or 'no_propaganda'
print(f"Confidence: {result['score']:.2%}")

Two-Stage Pipeline

For best results, use with the technique classifier:

from transformers import pipeline

# Stage 1: Binary detection
detector = pipeline("text-classification", model="synapti/nci-binary-detector")

# Stage 2: Technique classification (only if propaganda detected)
classifier = pipeline("text-classification", model="synapti/nci-technique-classifier", top_k=None)

text = "Your text to analyze..."

# Quick check first
detection = detector(text)[0]
if detection["label"] == "has_propaganda" and detection["score"] > 0.5:
    # Detailed technique analysis
    techniques = classifier(text)[0]
    detected = [t for t in techniques if t["score"] > 0.3]
    for t in detected:
        print(f"{t['label']}: {t['score']:.2%}")
else:
    print("No propaganda detected")

Training Data

Trained on synapti/nci-propaganda-production:

• 23,000+ examples from multiple sources
• Positive examples: Text with 1+ propaganda techniques (from SemEval-2020, augmented data)
• Hard negatives: Factual content from LIAR2, QBias datasets
• Class-weighted Focal Loss to handle imbalance (gamma=2.0)

Model Architecture

• Base Model: answerdotai/ModernBERT-base
• Parameters: 149.6M
• Max Sequence Length: 512 tokens
• Output: 2 labels (binary classification)

Training Details

• Loss Function: Focal Loss (gamma=2.0, alpha=0.25)
• Optimizer: AdamW
• Learning Rate: 2e-5
• Batch Size: 16 (effective 32 with gradient accumulation)
• Epochs: 5 with early stopping (patience=3)
• Hardware: NVIDIA A10G GPU

Limitations

• Trained primarily on English text
• Works best on content similar to training distribution (news articles, social media posts)
• May not detect subtle or novel propaganda techniques not in training data
• Should be used alongside human review for high-stakes applications

Related Models

• synapti/nci-technique-classifier - Stage 2 multi-label technique classifier

Citation

@inproceedings{da-san-martino-etal-2020-semeval,
    title = "{S}em{E}val-2020 Task 11: Detection of Propaganda Techniques in News Articles",
    author = "Da San Martino, Giovanni and others",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of SemEval-2020",
    year = "2020",
}

@misc{nci-binary-detector,
  author = {NCI Protocol Team},
  title = {NCI Binary Detector},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {HuggingFace},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/synapti/nci-binary-detector}
}

License

Apache 2.0