AI moderation tools are making social media worse, not safer

Automated moderation misfired on r/AskHistorians in April, flooding moderators' alert channels after dozens of comments and posts dating back a decade were removed without cause. The episode illustrates a broader pattern: deploying more AI to counter AI slop and hateful content can degrade the thing it protects. Social platforms work when users contribute authentic content, and leaning primarily on AI to preserve that authenticity misses that the value comes from the people. Erroneous mass erasures cost communities archives they spent years building, a loss no false-positive rate captures.

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