Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment

Abstract The field of social network analysis has identified User Alignment (UA) as a crucial area of investigation. The objective of UA is to identify and connect user accounts across diverse social networks, even when there are no explicit interconnections. UA plays a pivotal role in synthesising...

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Main Authors: Yongqiang Peng, Xiaoliang Chen, Duoqian Miao, Xiaolin Qin, Xu Gu, Peng Lu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2024-11-01
Series:Complex & Intelligent Systems
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-024-01626-6
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author Yongqiang Peng
Xiaoliang Chen
Duoqian Miao
Xiaolin Qin
Xu Gu
Peng Lu
author_facet Yongqiang Peng
Xiaoliang Chen
Duoqian Miao
Xiaolin Qin
Xu Gu
Peng Lu
author_sort Yongqiang Peng
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The field of social network analysis has identified User Alignment (UA) as a crucial area of investigation. The objective of UA is to identify and connect user accounts across diverse social networks, even when there are no explicit interconnections. UA plays a pivotal role in synthesising coherent user profiles and delving into the intricacies of user behaviour across platforms. However, traditional approaches have encountered limitations. Singular embedding techniques have been found to fall short in fully capturing the semantic essence of user profile attributes. Furthermore, classification-based embedding methods lack definitive criteria for categorisation, thereby constraining both the efficacy and applicability of these models. This paper presents a novel unsupervised Gradient Semantic Model for User Alignment (GSMUA) for the purpose of identifying common user identities across social networks. GSMUA categorises user profile information into weak, sub, and strong gradients based on the semantic intensity of attributes. Different gradient semantic levels direct attention to literal features, semantic features, or a combination of both during feature extraction, thereby achieving a full semantic representation of user attributes. In the case of strongly semantic long texts, GSMUA employs Named Entity Recognition (ENR) technology in order to enhance the inefficient handling of such texts. Furthermore, GSMUA compensates for missing user profile attributes by utilising profile information from user neighbours, thereby reducing the negative impact of missing user profile attributes on model performance. Extensive experiments conducted on four pairs of real datasets demonstrate the superiority of our approach. In comparison to the most effective previously developed unsupervised methods, GSMUA demonstrates improvements in hit-precision ranging from 5.32 to 12.17%. When compared to supervised methods, the improvements range from 0.71 to 11.79%.
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spelling doaj-art-8a9c532e938b4bd0b0b9aee8c38934602025-02-02T12:49:29ZengSpringerComplex & Intelligent Systems2199-45362198-60532024-11-0111112810.1007/s40747-024-01626-6Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignmentYongqiang Peng0Xiaoliang Chen1Duoqian Miao2Xiaolin Qin3Xu Gu4Peng Lu5School of Computer and Software Engineering, Xihua UniversitySchool of Computer and Software Engineering, Xihua UniversityCollege of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University ShanghaiChengdu Institute of Computer Applications, Chinese Academy of SciencesSchool of Computer and Software Engineering, Xihua UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Operations Research, University of MontrealAbstract The field of social network analysis has identified User Alignment (UA) as a crucial area of investigation. The objective of UA is to identify and connect user accounts across diverse social networks, even when there are no explicit interconnections. UA plays a pivotal role in synthesising coherent user profiles and delving into the intricacies of user behaviour across platforms. However, traditional approaches have encountered limitations. Singular embedding techniques have been found to fall short in fully capturing the semantic essence of user profile attributes. Furthermore, classification-based embedding methods lack definitive criteria for categorisation, thereby constraining both the efficacy and applicability of these models. This paper presents a novel unsupervised Gradient Semantic Model for User Alignment (GSMUA) for the purpose of identifying common user identities across social networks. GSMUA categorises user profile information into weak, sub, and strong gradients based on the semantic intensity of attributes. Different gradient semantic levels direct attention to literal features, semantic features, or a combination of both during feature extraction, thereby achieving a full semantic representation of user attributes. In the case of strongly semantic long texts, GSMUA employs Named Entity Recognition (ENR) technology in order to enhance the inefficient handling of such texts. Furthermore, GSMUA compensates for missing user profile attributes by utilising profile information from user neighbours, thereby reducing the negative impact of missing user profile attributes on model performance. Extensive experiments conducted on four pairs of real datasets demonstrate the superiority of our approach. In comparison to the most effective previously developed unsupervised methods, GSMUA demonstrates improvements in hit-precision ranging from 5.32 to 12.17%. When compared to supervised methods, the improvements range from 0.71 to 11.79%.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-024-01626-6Cross-network analysisUser alignmentGradient semantic attribute embeddingUnsupervised learningData sparsity
spellingShingle Yongqiang Peng
Xiaoliang Chen
Duoqian Miao
Xiaolin Qin
Xu Gu
Peng Lu
Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
Complex & Intelligent Systems
Cross-network analysis
User alignment
Gradient semantic attribute embedding
Unsupervised learning
Data sparsity
title Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
title_full Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
title_fullStr Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
title_full_unstemmed Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
title_short Unveiling user identity across social media: a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
title_sort unveiling user identity across social media a novel unsupervised gradient semantic model for accurate and efficient user alignment
topic Cross-network analysis
User alignment
Gradient semantic attribute embedding
Unsupervised learning
Data sparsity
url https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-024-01626-6
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