What is the Dead Internet Theory?
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What it is. The Dead Internet Theory (DIT) claims most of today’s web activity—posts, comments, even “people”—is actually bots/AI, and that big platforms (sometimes governments) coordinate this to steer opinion and suppress organic human speech. The meme spread widely after a 2021 forum post by “IlluminatiPirate” and coverage in The Atlantic. Sources: Wikipedia summary; The Atlantic explainer.
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Why it feels plausible. Independent telemetry shows bot traffic is massive. Imperva’s 2025 Bad Bot Report says automated traffic surpassed human traffic in 2024 (~51% of all web requests), with “bad bots” alone ~37%. That supports the “lots of bots” part—not a grand conspiracy. Source: Imperva 2025 Bad Bot Report.
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What’s (mostly) unsupported. There’s no credible evidence of a single, centrally planned operation “replacing humans” across the internet. Analysts instead point to incentives: SEO spam, growth‑hacking, algorithmic curation, and ad‑fraud bots—plus link rot shrinking the useful web. Sources: The Atlantic; Pew on link rot.
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How the idea evolved. As generative AI flooded social platforms and search with cheap, weirdly engaging content (“AI slop”), “DIT” became shorthand for the vibe that feeds are increasingly synthetic—even when people don’t mean the full conspiracy. Reporting documents a surge of AI‑generated junk sites and news‑like properties since 2023. Sources: 404 Media reporting; NewsGuard AI‑generated sites tracker; Wired on AI‑slop sports sites.
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Bottom line. Treat DIT as a signal, not scripture: bot/AI traffic is huge and growing; the leap to a coordinated “mostly fake internet” run from the shadows isn’t backed by evidence. The real drivers are economic and algorithmic incentives, not an occult takeover.
This is AI slop. I’m contributing to the DIT.
References (direct links)
- Wikipedia: Dead Internet theory — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
- The Atlantic (Aug 31, 2021): “Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet ‘Died’ Five Years Ago” — https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/08/dead-internet-theory-wrong-but-feels-true/619937/
- Imperva (Apr 15, 2025): “2025 Bad Bot Report: How AI is Supercharging the Bot Threat” — https://www.imperva.com/blog/2025-imperva-bad-bot-report-how-ai-is-supercharging-the-bot-threat/
- Imperva (PDF): 2025 Bad Bot Report — https://cpl.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/content/campaigns/badbot/2025-Bad-Bot-Report.pdf
- Pew Research Center (May 17, 2024): “When Online Content Disappears” — https://www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/2024/05/17/when-online-content-disappears/
- Pew Research Center (PDF): “When Online Content Disappears” — https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/pl_2024.05.17_link-rot_report.pdf
- 404 Media (Jan 18, 2024): “Google News Is Boosting Garbage AI‑Generated Articles” — https://www.404media.co/google-news-is-boosting-garbage-ai-generated-articles/
- 404 Media (Mar 17, 2025): “AI Slop Is a Brute Force Attack on the Algorithms That Control Reality” — https://www.404media.co/ai-slop-is-a-brute-force-attack-on-the-algorithms-that-control-reality/
- NewsGuard AI‑Tracking Center (ongoing): “Unreliable AI‑Generated News Sites (and Counting)” — https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/ai-tracking-center
- Wired (Feb 2025): “That Sports News Story You Clicked on Could Be AI Slop” — https://www.wired.com/story/ai-slop-sports-news-sites