Over the past few months, two social media trends have generated news headlines. The first trend suggests that social media is increasingly becoming less social. Across various age groups, individuals are posting less content online. When users do post content, it is usually disseminated among small groups of friends via WhatsApp groups or Instagram stories. This constitutes a tectonic shift in the use of social media. The age of constant selfies, Facebook check-ins, status updates, and gym workout videos is over. So is the age of self-surveillance. What marked social media use in previous years was users’ willingness to document and share all aspects of daily life, including commutes to work, weddings, graduation ceremonies, divorces, and even trips to the Auschwitz memorial. Social media pages were filled with visual documentations of daily life.
Some have argued that social media use is declining due to “AI Slop,” or a constant barrage of AI-generated content that spams people’s feeds. Slop, or AI-generated content that is amplified through social media algorithms despite being of low quality is flooding users, who are now bombarded with a flurry of nonsensical images, videos, and texts. Given that Slop is fast and easy to generate in mass volumes, it is drowning out content generated by human users. The result is Facebook feeds comprised mostly of adverts and surreal images of “Shrimp Jesus” and a cat being arrested.
What is unique about AI Slop is that it has no message; it has no meaning or context. It is simply a slew of images and videos meant to generate likes and shares and obtain virality. But Slop is not the sole factor impacting social media habits. Changes to X under Elon Musk have seen the network descend into anarchy, toxicity, and pornography. X, formerly Twitter, is no longer the home of diplomats, journalists, editors, and decision-makers, but the largest factory of “Rage Bait”, incendiary content written with the deliberate intent to provoke anger and rage. This may include edited images of politicians with outrageous comments taken out of context, videos of rude conduct and behavior, so-called depictions of offensive behavior often edited by creators, and even inflammatory content dealing with sensitive topics. Here again, the logic is one of algorithmic amplification, as incendiary content can generate comments, emojis, and discussions, all of which generate revenue for social media companies. There is also the familiar petri dish of fake news, conspiracy theories, and hate speech that has marked social media for some time.
All of these factors have contributed to social media becoming asocial, with users interacting mostly with small groups of friends and contacts. However, the past few months have also seen a second shift: individuals’ use of AI image generators to comment on issues dominating the news cycles. Wars, crises, and political upheavals, as well as gossip, are all commented on using AI-generated images. Such was the case during the 2022 Gaza War, in which thousands of individuals used AI-generated images to denounce Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Similarly, social media is awash with AI images commenting on the relationship between Presidents Trump and Putin, images focusing on US immigration policies and ICE arrests, as well as AI visuals dealing with the Epstein files.
This new form of visual political commentary is replacing previous forms, such as harshly worded Facebook posts or highly emotional short videos. Interestingly, AI-generated images are rarely neutral in tone. Given that AI image generators look to create trending content, their output is highly emotive. Images of Trump and Putin usually either depict the two as having a romantic relationship, including intimate dinner dates at exclusive restaurants, or as having a bizarre relationship with Putin holding Trump’s leather leash. As such, this form of political commentary is also, by nature, incendiary, generating hundreds of comments and serving as another form of “Rage Bait.”
However, just as AI content can enrage, it can also please. Political commentary using AI often includes humor and often quotes pop culture. Such is the case with AI images that depict Putin as Thanos from The Avengers, satirical images comparing political leaders to Simpsons characters, or images that transform leaders into action figures that can be bought and sold online, a reference to how politicians can be bought and sold.
The two social media trends thus seem to intersect thanks to AI. It is AI generators that create Slop and help create “Rage Bait,” but that also enable people to quickly comment on political issues and international affairs. In both cases, however, the deliberative nature of social media seems to be missing. Social media is no longer a space for conversations, but for rants. Moreover, in both cases, AI is eroding the middle ground. Comments and conversations posted in response to Slop, “Rage Bait,” and AI-based political commentary are extreme, violent, and one-sided. There are very few comments that invite discussion, facilitate dialogue, or lead to actual discourse. If anything, all three forms of content drive political and social polarization.
These two trends constitute a real challenge for diplomats, as it is in the middle ground that diplomacy takes place. It is in the middle ground that different people, with different views, can come together and reach agreements. Diplomats also, by nature, strive for the middle ground, focusing on compromises rather than one-sided blows. The question that comes to the fore is, therefore: can diplomats still leverage social media toward diplomatic ends? If users no longer post content, if “Rage Bait,” hate speech, Slop, and toxicity drive users away from these platforms, and if political commentary is growing more and more extreme, is social media still relevant to the conduct of diplomacy? Can a diplomatic tweet survive or even flourish when surrounded by pornography, violence, and Shrimp Jesus?
Equally important is the question of whether MFAs and diplomats should rely more on those networks that are still social, such as LinkedIn and Instagram. Although used primarily for self-glorification and work-related posts, LinkedIn has yet to drown in Slop and “Rage Bait.” However, LinkedIn is not as news-oriented as Twitter once was, nor as social as Facebook once was. Instagram, on its part, does not have the elite audiences that Twitter once boasted and requires advanced visual skills.
MFAs and diplomats across the world will need to reconsider how and when they use social media. The digital diplomacy model that served diplomats from 2012 to 2024 may be defunct. As social media becomes more toxic and as the middle ground continues to erode, diplomats should consider returning to other forms of digital communications including websites, where diplomats would not compete over the attention of users; blogs and podcasts, that can offer individuals insight into world affairs; and text based platforms like Reddit, where visuals may play a smaller role, as will Slop and “Rage Bait.”
Exploring Digital Diplomacy 
Leave a comment