A comprehensive review on Arabic offensive language and hate speech detection on social media: methods, challenges and solutions

In recent years, social media has witnessed an exponential growth in promoting healthy relationships and communication between family, friends, and acquaintances, but it isn't without its flaws. It is clear that sometimes social media freedom can create an unattractive online environment. Hate speech and offensive language are frequently spread on social media platforms. Thus, they encompass different negative effects on our society. Therefore, detecting hate speech and offensive language has become the theme of one of the major research trends. Although the Arabic language occupies a distinct position among the languages on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, the ability to identify Arabic hate speech and offensive language is still developing due to the variety and complexity of Arabic dialects and forms. In this paper, we present an in-depth review focused on studies published between 2019 and September 2023 related to Arabic offensive language and hate speech detection. To conclude, we highlighted the most significant methods, Arabic datasets, taxonomy analysis, and challenges. Moreover, this review provides a foundation of knowledge that can help the researchers design and implement reliable and more accurate solutions.