What is the dead internet theory?
The dead internet theory is a conspiracy theory suggesting that artificial intelligence has almost entirely taken over the internet. It states that the internet died between 2016 and 2017, and was then taken over by bots spreading content from Big Tech and the government to manipulate the culture. In other words, most people we see online publishing content or writing comments today are actually bots.
One of the more popular posts explaining the theory comes from IlluminatiPirate, a user of the online forum Agora Road’s Macintosh Cafe, who created a thread titled *Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is Fake* in 2021. Though the death of internet is still a theory, the quickly changing online environment, the more sophisticated algorithms corporations use, and the increasing amount of AI-generated content bring it many supporters.