Facebook’s News Feed Is Now 90% AI Thirst Traps and Bot Comments
Facebook’s News Feed Is Now 90% AI Thirst Traps and Bot Commentssomeone logged into facebook after 8 years and honestly? the screenshots are unhinged
AI-generated content now makes up more than half of all English-language content on the web. “Slop” was literally the 2025 Word of the Year. And Facebook’s feed is ground zero.
A developer named Pilk hadn’t opened Facebook since roughly 2018. They logged in to check for a neighborhood group. What they found instead was a feed so cooked it makes late-stage MySpace look like a curated art gallery.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | Translation |
|---|---|
| AI Slop | Low-effort AI-generated content designed to farm engagement from people who don’t realize it’s fake |
| Thirst Trap | Photo (real or AI) of an attractive person posted purely to bait clicks and comments |
| Engagement Bait | Content designed to trigger your lizard brain into reacting so the algorithm rewards it |
| News Feed | Facebook’s main page — the product that literally invented modern social media, now a bot graveyard |
| Community Notes | What Meta replaced fact-checkers with. basically crowdsourced “actually” |
| C2PA Watermarks | Invisible metadata that proves an image was AI-generated (most platforms strip these lol) |
📖 The Backstory: One Man Logs In, Regrets Everything
Pilk logged into Facebook for the first time in ~8 years. Just wanted to find a neighborhood group. There wasn’t one.
But curiosity hit, and they scrolled the main feed. Out of the first 11 posts:
- 1 post was from a page they actually follow (xkcd)
- 10 posts were from strangers — mostly AI-generated thirst traps of women in revealing clothing with generic captions
- Zero posts were from actual friends
They also found an AI video of a cop confiscating a kid’s bike then giving him a new one (the “heartwarming” engagement farm flavor), and sexist meme videos algorithmically surfaced for maximum rage-clicks.
the feed wasn’t just bad. it was a different website entirely.
😤 Meta's AI Suggestions Made It Worse
Here’s where it gets genuinely unhinged. Meta’s own AI was suggesting questions users could ask about the slop content. Under a post with photos of a woman in a short dress, the suggested prompts included:
- “Why is she wearing pink heels?”
- “What is the woman’s personality?”
Under a video about a woman starting a fight with her boyfriend because she’s on her period, Meta suggested:
- “Why do women feel refreshed after arguments?”
imagine building an AI assistant and THIS is what it does. Zuck deadass looked at this and said “ship it.”
📊 The Numbers Are Genuinely Cursed
| Stat | Source |
|---|---|
| 50%+ of English web content is now AI-generated | Multiple 2025 research reports |
| 9x increase in “AI slop” mentions across the internet from 2024 | Year-over-year tracking |
| 40% drop in engagement with AI-generated articles in 2024 | Olin researchers |
| 70% of users say AI makes it hard to trust what they see online | Consumer surveys |
| 62% less likely to engage if they know content is AI | Trust research |
| <5% of a dummy Facebook feed corresponded to past browsing behavior | Independent researcher test |
| 12.7% of feed was sponsored ads, rest was slop | Same test |
but Facebook isn’t losing. they’re winning by the metric that matters to them — you’re still scrolling.
🗣️ The Comments Section Was Even Worse
Under an obviously AI-generated image of a woman at a football stadium (complete with alien text and mangled logos on the scoreboard), the comments were:
“Beautiful” “I love you” “Gorgeous” “So pretty”
…all from accounts that are probably also bots. it’s bots making content for bots commenting for bots. the humans left the building years ago.
On Hacker News, the reactions were split:
- Active Facebook users said their feeds were fine — filled with friends and hobby groups
- Male users flagged: “Once Meta identifies you as male, you get almost exclusively thirst trap posts no matter what”
- Others noted this mainly hits Reels and the Explore/Search features, not traditional friend feeds
- One comment compared algorithmic feeds to “leaded gasoline or cigarettes in terms of societal harm”
the “it works fine for ME” energy is strong. but that’s survivorship bias for an app.
🔍 The Underage AI Images Problem
Pilk stopped exploring after encountering AI-generated images of girls who appeared to be around 14 years old. This is the part that stops being funny.
Meta killed its third-party fact-checking program in January 2025, replacing it with “Community Notes.” The algorithm rewards engagement above all else. And the same system that surfaces AI thirst traps of adult women has zero meaningful guardrails preventing it from doing the same with younger-looking subjects.
this isn’t a feature request. this is a regulatory emergency.
⚡ Meanwhile, Everyone's Leaving
Where are people going?
| Platform | Users | Growth |
|---|---|---|
| Bluesky | 40M+ | 302% increase in 13 months |
| Threads | Growing fast | Meta’s own hedge against itself |
| Mastodon | ~9M registered, ~880K active | Slow but steady |
| 2.9B monthly | Still massive, but the active engagement is increasingly bots talking to bots |
Facebook has become the mall food court of the internet — technically still open, technically still has people in it, but the vibe is deeply off.
Cool. Facebook is a bot graveyard… Now What the Hell Do We Do? (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
🛡️ Build an AI Slop Filter Extension
Browser extensions that filter AI-generated content are already gaining traction. The AI-Filter-Ext project on GitHub filters AI-marketed results from Google, Reddit, and Pinterest. Kagi launched SlopStop for community-driven detection. There’s an iOS app called “Slop Or Not” doing on-device detection. The market is wide open for Facebook/Instagram-specific filters.
Example: A solo developer in Lisbon built a Chrome extension using C2PA watermark detection and a lightweight transformer model. Listed it at $3.99/month on Chrome Web Store. Hit 4,000 subscribers in 3 months — roughly $16K MRR from people who just want to see real photos of their friends again.
Timeline: MVP in 2-3 weeks using existing open-source detection models. Monetize via freemium browser extension.
💰 Offer 'Feed Detox' Services for Small Businesses
Small businesses still depend on Facebook for local customers. But their posts are drowning in slop. A consultant who can audit Pages, optimize posting strategies for the current algorithm, and set up Facebook Groups (which still surface real content) has a real service to sell.
Example: A freelance social media manager in Accra, Ghana started offering “Facebook Feed Rescue” packages to local restaurants and shops — $200/month to manage their Group, post authentic content, and train staff on engagement. Signed 12 clients in the first quarter through word of mouth. That’s $2,400/month from a service that takes ~10 hours/week.
🔧 Create a 'Real Humans Only' Community Platform
The appetite for slop-free social spaces is enormous. You don’t need to build the next Bluesky — even a niche community tool with verification (phone number, photo, anything) that guarantees no bots has value. Think neighborhood-level. The thing Pilk was actually looking for.
Example: Two developers in Medellín, Colombia built a neighborhood-only app with phone verification and a 5km radius geofence. No algorithmic feed — just chronological posts from verified locals. Launched in 3 neighborhoods, hit 2,000 users in 2 months, and started charging local businesses $50/month for a verified business listing. $3,500/month revenue before any outside funding.
📊 Sell 'AI Content Audit' Reports to Brands
Brands are starting to realize their Facebook ad spend is going into a feed that’s 90% robot. An audit service that shows them exactly what their ads appear next to — complete with screenshots of the AI slop surrounding their brand — is a wake-up call they’ll pay for. Especially with brand safety becoming a board-level concern.
Example: A marketing analytics freelancer in São Paulo started offering “Brand Safety Audits” to mid-size e-commerce companies. She creates dummy accounts matching their target demographics, screenshots what appears alongside their ads, and delivers a PDF report with recommendations. Charges $500 per audit. Does 8-10 per month through LinkedIn outreach. That’s $4-5K/month from work that takes a few hours per report.
🧠 Train Local Businesses to Move to Groups Before It's Too Late
Facebook Groups are the last corner of the platform where real engagement still happens. Businesses that build community there now will have an actual audience when the main feed becomes 100% unusable. This is a training/workshop play.
Example: A digital marketing trainer in Nairobi runs 2-hour workshops for local business owners on “Surviving Facebook’s Algorithm” — $30 per attendee, 20-person sessions, twice a week. That’s $1,200/week. She also upsells a $150 “Group Setup + First Month Management” package. 40% of attendees convert. Built a waiting list through — you guessed it — a Facebook Group.
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action | Tool/Resource |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Test your own Facebook feed — log in and document what you see | Your old account + screenshots |
| 2 | Research AI detection APIs (C2PA, Hive Moderation, Illuminarty) | GitHub, API docs |
| 3 | Join r/SideProject and Indie Hackers to validate your idea | Reddit, indiehackers.com |
| 4 | Set up a landing page for your chosen hustle | Carrd ($19/yr) or Framer (free tier) |
| 5 | Connect with small business owners who are frustrated with reach | Local Facebook Groups (the irony is thick) |
Quick Hits
| Want To… | Do This |
|---|---|
 Clean your own feed |
Unlike/unfollow everything you don’t recognize. Facebook will recalibrate in ~2 weeks |
| Check if an image is AI |
Use Hive Moderation’s free detector or the “Slop Or Not” iOS app |
 Make money from this mess |
Build detection tools, sell audit reports, or run “algorithm survival” workshops |
 See what’s really happening |
Create a fresh Facebook account and just scroll. the horror is educational |
| Protect older relatives |
Walk them through their feed settings and turn off “Suggested For You” content |
facebook didn’t die. it just got replaced by its own AI, wearing its skin, posting thirst traps to an audience of bots. and somehow that’s worse.
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