Heard of the Dead Internet Theory? Find Out Why People Think the Internet Died in 2016

There are a lot of theories being shared around social media these days. And while some of them are more extreme than others — like the idea that the Large Hadron Collider caused an alternate universe to be created when it was first turned on — there is one theory that keeps making the rounds online, and it's known as the dead internet theory.

People use this concept to explain the state of the internet, saying that what we're currently seeing online has almost entirely been created by bots.

While we can assure you that no artificial intelligence was used in the drafting of this explainer, we do have to admit that the rise in use of artificial intelligence does seem to lend some credibility to this ongoing conspiracy theory, which is likely why people keep sharing it on social media.

Curious about exactly what the dead internet theory entails? Keep reading as we explain everything that is being said about it.

According to Wikipedia, the dead internet theory is the idea that sometime in 2016, real human interactions and content creation stopped happening online. Instead, these were replaced by bots or artificial intelligence, which carefully curated everything being shared on the internet in order to craft a certain narrative about what is going on in the world.

It's believed that these posts and interactions are being guided by government agencies, looking to control the general public.

While it's hard to say exactly when the theory came to light, Wikipedia cites a 2021 post that was shared to Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe titled, "Dead Internet Theory: Most Of The Internet Is Fake." From there it seems like the conspiracy took off, and The Atlantic even did a widely read piece on it, titled "Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet 'Died' Five Years Ago."

The rise in use of AI services like ChatGPT only seem to support aspects of this theory, though it would be hard to prove.

If you believe the dead internet theory to be true, then you likely already think that everything that has been posted about it has come from the very bots and AI systems at the heart of the theory. However, the experts (yes, online), say that there's some merit to the idea that content is largely being produced by non-human entities.

Take this story from The Guardian in 2024. It highlights how many blue checkmarks on X use language models to churn out content for profit.

Then there's also the fact that many Google searches immediately return AI vetted responses at the top of the findings, summarizing what could (sometimes inaccurately) included in the links it produced in response to your query.

Lastly, there's the scary figure that says that bots make up about half of all of the recorded internet traffic, a third of which is credited towards "bad bots," which are working in the background to hack or scam folks.

So, what's the truth when it comes to the dead internet theory? It looks like this is one conspiracy that may be based somewhat in truth, but given the unreliable nature of what can be found online, we may never truly know just how much content is being created by real humans, and what is actually bots in disguise.