mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

What Improves Multimodal Misinformation Detection? Answers from a Large-Scale Empirical Study

arXiv 2609.30402 ↗First posted 24 Sep 2026cs.CV cs.AI cs.CLcited by 0

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Abstract (arXiv)

Multimodal misinformation is increasingly crafted to look convincing by pairing a textual claim with an image that appears to "prove" it. Yet in practice, building effective detectors often hinges on a small set of design choices that are rarely examined in a controlled way. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale study of multimodal design choices for misinformation detection with over 3,375 experiments- spanning three benchmark datasets and a broad range of pre-trained vision and language backbones. Through systematic comparisons and targeted robustness analyses, we distill practical guidance on which design choices help, when do they fail silently, and what aspects of the pipeline most strongly shape model behavior, answering 4 key Research Questions (RQs). We aim to provide a reliable foundation for designing stronger and more dependable multimodal misinformation detection systems, thus contributing to the broader research community.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 19 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Sep 2026.

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19 of 30 references.

References · 19

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  11. 2021NewsCLIPpings: Automatic Generation of Out-of-Context Multimodal Mediacited by 106
  12. 2024SNIFFER: Multimodal Large Language Model for Explainable Out-of-Context Misinformation Detectioncited by 73
7 more
  1. 2024MMFakeBench: A Mixed-Source Multimodal Misinformation Detection Benchmark for LVLMscited by 60
  2. 2022Hate-CLIPper: Multimodal Hateful Meme Classification based on Cross-modal Interaction of CLIP Featurescited by 55
  3. 2024MemeCLIP: Leveraging CLIP Representations for Multimodal Meme Classificationcited by 29
  4. 2024MiRAGeNews: Multimodal Realistic AI-Generated News Detectioncited by 15
  5. 2025VLDBench Evaluating Multimodal Disinformation with Regulatory Alignmentcited by 8
  6. 2026MemeTAG: Keyword-Driven Meme Classification through Tag Embedding Reconstructioncited by 2
  7. 2026Small Cues, Big Consequences: Learning Pivotal Cues for Multimodal Meme Classificationcited by 1

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