AI Generated Algorithmic Virality (AI Slop)
Across three European countries, 25% of TikTok's top search results contained synthetic AI imagery (80%+ from 'Agentic AI Accounts'); only about half of AI content was properly labeled despite DSA commitments.
Executive summary
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AI Forensics manually reviewed the top 30 search results for 13 hashtags (including #trump, #zelensky, #pope, #health, and #history) on TikTok and Instagram in Spain, Germany, and Poland in June 2025. The study identified a category of automated profiles it terms "Agentic AI Accounts," specializing in mass-produced synthetic media, and examined 153 of them to gauge their scale and output.
On TikTok, 25% of top search results contained synthetic imagery, a notably higher share than on Instagram, with more than 80% of that TikTok content traced to Agentic AI Accounts (versus 15% on Instagram). Most of this material was photorealistic. Despite DSA labeling obligations, only about half of TikTok's AI content carried disclosure labels, and 23% on Instagram, with some labels difficult to see or absent on Instagram's desktop version.
The report concludes that both platforms are failing to consistently disclose AI-generated content, allowing industrially produced synthetic media, some containing sexualized or xenophobic material, to circulate at scale and accumulate billions of views.
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