A Social Media Development Revolution: Slopaganda and the Firehose of Falsehood

Abstract

In this paper, I claim that widespread generative AI exploits fundamental vulnerabilities in the current Social Media paradigm, specifically relating to the potential of propaganda created underneath the Firehose of Falsehood model—creating a crisis, and that Revolutionary Development, which addresses core vulnerabilities of the paradigm, will be necessary to remedy the crisis.

These claims are argued primarily through comparative means, with Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 essay, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions being the keystone source for understanding paradigm and revolutionary development, a modified term from Revolutionary Science. But many other elements are used to supplement this argument. The crisis itself is justified through a cross- analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of generative AI and the Firehose of Falsehood propaganda model; a model of the Russian propaganda strategy, coined in a paper by the RAND corporation in 2016. This paper refers AI generated propaganda created under this model as ‘Slopaganda’, a term borrowed from Klincewicz et al and other relevant works in the literature on this topic. Then, a critical analysis of the popular Dead Internet conspiracy theory; a theory that holds that most of the content on the internet is bot-generated for the purposes of mass manipulation, sets stakes for a ‘Slopaganda’ crisis.

Finally, potential solutions that alter the assumptions of the current generative-AI paradigm are addressed. These proposed solutions are based on Kuhn’s essay, and range from large-scale developmental strategies such as altering the funding model of these platforms or their populations, to individual-scale solutions, such as maintaining an openness to new platforms, and a persistent awareness of the potential of propaganda on the internet.