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Dead Internet Theory

is an online conspiracy theory that asserts that, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation to control the population and minimize organic human activity.[1][2][3][4][5] Proponents of the theory believe these bots were created intentionally to help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumers.[6][7] Some proponents of the theory accuse government agencies of using bots to manipulate public perception.[2][6] The date given for this "death" is generally around 2016 or 2017.[2][8][9] The dead Internet theory has gained traction because many of the observed phenomena are quantifiable, such as increased bot traffic, but the literature does not support the full theory.[2][4][10] Caroline Busta, founder of the media platform New Models, was quoted in an article in The Atlantic calling much of the dead Internet theory a "paranoid fantasy", even if there are legitimate criticisms involving bot traffic and the integrity of the internet, but she said she does agree with the "overarching idea".[2] In an article in The New Atlantis, Robert Mariani called the theory a mix between a genuine conspiracy theory and a creepypasta.[6] The dead Internet theory is sometimes used to refer to the observable increase in content generated via large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT appearing in popular Internet spaces without mention of the full theory.[1][11] Origins and spread[edit] The dead Internet theory's exact origin is difficult to pinpoint. In 2021, a now-deleted post was made to 4chan's paranormal board titled "Dead Internet Theory: Most Of The Internet Is Fake" claiming to be building on previous posts from the same board and from Wizardchan,[2] and marking the term's spread beyond these initial imageboards.[2][12] The conspiracy theory has entered public culture through widespread coverage and has been discussed on various high-profile YouTube channels.[2] It gained more mainstream attention with an article in The Atlantic titled "Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet 'Died' Five Years Ago".[2] This article has been widely cited by other articles on the topic.[13][12] Claims[edit] The dead Internet theory has two main components: that organic human activity on the web has been displaced by bots and algorithmically curated search results, and that state actors are doing this in a coordinated effort to manipulate the human population.[3][14][15] The first part of this theory, that bots create much of the content on the internet and perhaps contribute more than organic human content, has been a concern for a while, with the original post by "IlluminatiPirate" citing the article "How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually" in New York magazine.[2][16][14] The Dead Internet Theory goes on to include that Google, and other search engines, are censoring the Web by filtering content that is not desirable by limiting what is indexed and presented in search results.[3] While Google may suggest that there are millions of search results for a query, the results available to a user do not reflect that.[3] This problem is exacerbated by the phenomenon known as link rot, which is caused when content at a website becomes unavailable, and all links to it on other sites break.[3] This has led to the theory that Google is a Potemkin village, and the searchable Web is much smaller than we are led to believe.[3] The Dead Internet Theory suggests that this is part of the conspiracy to limit users to curated, and potentially artificial, content online.

The second half of the dead Internet theory builds on this observable phenomenon by proposing that the U.S. government, corporations, or other actors are intentionally limiting users to curated, and potentially artificial AI-generated content, to manipulate the human population for a variety of reasons. [24] University of South Florida professor John Licato compared this situation of AI-generated web content flooding Reddit to the dead Internet theory. Numerous YouTube channels and online communities, including the Linus Tech Tips forums and Joe Rogan subreddit, have covered the dead Internet theory, which has helped to advance the idea into mainstream discourse.

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