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<body><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><div class="plaintext" style="white-space: normal;"><p dir="auto">On 22 Jul 2026, at 12:15, Mzwakhe Mabasa via RPD wrote:</p>
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<div id="yiv5298610790">Good day.</div>
<div id="yiv5298610790">I would like to post to the RPD mailing list. Kindly allow me this opportunity of being part of the RPD afrinic policy decisions. <br>
<div id="yiv5298610790ymail_android_signature"><br></div>
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<div style="font-family:Roboto, sans-serif;font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 16px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790n6owBd yiv5298610790awi2gc"><span style="margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);">While AI is widely used across the internet,</span> its acceptability depends on the specific platform you are referring to . Most social networks allow AI assistance, but require the clear labeling of AI-generated imagery and ban non-consensual deepfakes or harmful content. L</div>
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<div style="margin:12px 0px 16px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790n6owBd yiv5298610790awi2gc">Since platform policies vary greatly, here is a breakdown of how the most popular services handle AI usage:</div>
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<li style="margin:0px 0px 12px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Z1qcYe"><span style="margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790iNqyIf"><span style="font-weight:700;margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Yjhzub">Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube):</span> Generally allowed, but social media algorithms penalize low-quality, generic content. Major platforms are shifting to automatic detection and require synthetic imagery to be appropriately labeled to avoid misinformation penalties.</span> </li>
</ul>
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<li style="margin:0px 0px 12px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Z1qcYe"><span style="margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790iNqyIf"><span style="font-weight:700;margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Yjhzub">Design & Creative Platforms (Canva):</span> AI usage for brainstorming and generating designs is permitted, but platforms typically place operational limits on how much AI content you can generate per month. Users are responsible for ensuring AI outputs do not mislead others and are used in accordance with local copyright laws.</span> </li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 12px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Z1qcYe"><span style="margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790iNqyIf"><span style="font-weight:700;margin:0px;border-bottom:0px rgb(10, 10, 10);" class="yiv5298610790Yjhzub">AI Generation Models (Open AI, Midjourney):</span> AI tools are permitted, but they enforce strict universal policies. You cannot use these services for harassment, defamation, or generating unauthorized deepfakes of real people</span></li>
</ul>
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<div class="plaintext" style="white-space: normal;"><p dir="auto">
<br>
to play off an older joke:</p>
<p dir="auto">q: “how do you know someone’s using LLMs?”
<br>
a: “they’ll damn well tell you”</p>
<p dir="auto">normally I don’t need to pay much attention to rpd because things don’t move that much, and then the last week… the sloppist tsunami has been quite notable. and it’s near all this kind of milquetoast nonsense gibberish. I saw someone else mention the astroturfing component of things too (and a cursory investigation around the poster domains for the most vocal proponents there had me raising my eyebrows most spock-like) but I’ll leave that aside for now</p>
<p dir="auto">it’s probably worth rpd considering a full and complete ban on prompt-generation and prompt-assistance for use on the policy list, with possibly a poster cooldown/block period (and some way to deal with repeat offenders and ban evasion).</p>
<p dir="auto">there’s both precedent and strong arguments in favour</p>
<p dir="auto">precedent: a number of other public-benefit and mass-cooperation organisations and projects have taken to the hardline block (the most notable is codeberg, as of earlier today)</p>
<p dir="auto">arguments: the most obvious is exactly what has happened in the last week (and the alternative of no ban is an utter deluge of worthless noise, which will space-fill as far as it can go). there is also ample evidence across multiple years and multiple studies that these technologies are _bad_ at fine detail, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that is very ill-fitting in the context of what rpd is to be doing</p>
<p dir="auto">-J</p>
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