"Dead Internet Theory" is a more modern conspiracy theory saying that, since 2016, most of the online activity, particularly in social media, is driven by bots and AI-generated content, rather than human interaction. The theory emerged on January 5, 2021, through a post titled "Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet Is Fake" by a user known as "IlluminatiPirate" on the Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe forum. The theory states that these AI entities are designed to manipulate search engine algorithms and social media feeds, promoting certain narratives and suppressing others to influence public opinion. Some suggest that large corporations are behind this orchestrated effort to control the flow of information, using AI to achieve this. This explains why the internet began to feel repetitive, with the same conversations, memes, and topics recycling endlessly.
Theorists suggest that “popular” websites or media accounts that should have a lot of traction and comments are sometimes completely dead. Furthermore, when there are comments or an active audience, the interactions taking place seem scripted and generated. Additionally, things that people are interested in, no matter how fringe, later become more mainstream in an attempt to appeal to all audiences and therefore maintain engagement with the internet. A software company called Imperva did an analysis and report in 2025 of the amount of “bad bots” circulating in 2024. The results were that automated traffic was greater than human-generated traffic for the first time in 2024, accounting for 51% of all web traffic. Of this total bot traffic, malicious bots, called "bad bots," made up a significant portion: 37% of all web traffic in 2024. This clearly shows an increase in bot activity in 2024, which has been a point of contention on many different social media platforms. This has been a documented problem for years, so it may not be far-fetched to believe this could be part of an agenda to disconnect people from one another online. This would also mean that AI’s capabilities may exceed what we think they are now if it has been around for a while.
To shed light on the conspiracy surrounding the government's involvement, a technology company, Narrative Science, uses artificial intelligence to transform raw data into more digestible stories.Narrative Science has a high-end investor, In-Q-Tel, or IQT, which so happens to be the investment arm for the CIA. This fact only shows that the government has some tangible hand in sponsoring an entity with the sole purpose of using AI to inform the masses. This, on its own, raised eyebrows for individuals looking into this. Though this theory is hard to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, the main thesis is very compelling, especially in the current state of social media and social interactions.
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