Last month, a new social-media app started making the rounds. On SocialAI, the pitch goes, you’re always the “main character,” you’ll always get engagement, your replies will always be full, and ...

The conspiratorial "dead internet theory"—that most online activity is just a haze of self-perpetuating algorithmic noise⁠—is not true, yet, but it sure seems like some people really want to get us ...