How an army of AI bots could threaten your online privacy and free speech

Your Digital Self

Social media is being transformed into an arena where artificial voices shape, control and often drown out human conversation

Last Updated: May 22, 2025 at 11:27 a.m. ET
First Published: May 22, 2025 at 7:55 a.m. ET

In January, Meta Platforms METAreplaced its third-party fact-checking program with a community-based approach. At the same time, Meta developed thousands of AI personas across its popular social-media platforms. While these look like separate developments and Meta has never explicitly connected them, to me they herald something rather concerning: an emerging blueprint for how AI could be used to shape public opinion.

The perfect setup

The strategy is brilliantly simple: Replace “fact-checkers” with “community” moderation similar to what takes place on social-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. That would appease the right-wing base, while simultaneously populating that same community with AI agents. As of mid-March, Meta’s crowdsourced “Community Notes” is live in closed beta on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, but Meta’s own Oversight Board warned in late April that the rushed rollout lacked public human-rights due diligence.