When Agents Persuade: Propaganda Generation and Mitigation in LLMs

arXiv:2603.04636v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Despite their wide-ranging benefits, LLM-based agents deployed in open environments can be exploited to produce manipulative material. In this study, we task LLMs with propaganda objectives and analyze their outputs using two domain-specific models: one that classifies text as propaganda or non-propaganda, and another that detects rhetorical techniques of propaganda (e.g., loaded language, appeals to fear, flag-waving, name-calling). Our findings