I might not be real, and you’d never know. Thanks to the rise of the Dead Internet Theory, we now have to wonder if everything we see online is real or just a bot. Dead Internet Theory proposes the possibility that AI bots have taken over the internet, and when you are chatting with “people” online, you might just be interacting with a bot.

People across the internet have noticed this dangerous and creepy phenomenon collectively, and I’m here to explain it.

What is the Dead Internet Theory?

This theory has been floating around the internet for a while now, but it first gained attention in a post by an anonymous user by the name of IlluminatiPirate on the forum Agora Road’s Macintosh Cafe in 2021.

In the post, the user argues that the internet is “empty and devoid of people” and “devoid of content.” The user also states that this phenomenon started around 2016 or 2017. IlluminatiPirate noted that most of the posts on 4Chan were written in English and grammatically correct, but something about them sounded off. Furthermore, every single post was always the same idea but phrased differently. The author claimed to have discovered that these posts were bots.

The author also points out the fact that big corporations or the government could be using bots on the internet to spread propaganda, manipulate public perception, and spread false information.

A theory that started from an anonymous person posting in a dark corner of the internet can now be seen across the biggest social media platforms.

Evidence proving the Dead Internet Theory

Although this conspiracy theory is not confirmed, the internet feeling dead and empty is especially prominent on the controversial social media platform—X.

Botting likes on X accounts is nothing new. “Botting likes” is when users use a large amount of bots, often purchased online from unscrupulous engagement farms, to boost their views, shares, and likes. What is new is X bots are having conversations with each other. It is easy to spot when an account is a bot. If their profile picture looks AI generated – it’s creepy, you’ll notice – or if they keep posting the same picture again and again. Also, when X bots chat with each other, all of their conversations are the same for a while, and then it switches, like a cycle.

This doesn’t just happen on X — traces that show the internet is dead are everywhere. According to Intelligencer, less than 60 percent of the internet is human. To put it into perspective, this means that over half of YouTube comments are bots. A “dead internet” can also not just be about bots — fake views, clicks, and content all support the Dead Internet theory.

At first sight, the rise of bots on these platforms might seem harmless, even funny. But when you look deeper into it, the harm might be irreversible.

The Dangers of a Dead Internet

Does the Dead Internet Theory absolutely prove that the government is spying on us, always spreading mass propaganda, and nothing we see on the internet is real? No. But does this show us that the government now has an option to more effectively conduct mass media manipulation? Definitely.

In times of war like those happening in Ukraine and Israel, spreading misinformation and propaganda comes in handy for governments. When people can use so many bots that only 40 percent of internet traffic is human, government intervention is definitely possible.

Although there is no concrete evidence that the government is doing shady things behind the scenes, the fact that they have this potential power (or they are already doing it but we just don’t know) is eerie enough.

A Dead Internet could also diminish the utility of social media. When clicks are bot-generated, the views are mostly fake, the content you learn is untrue, and even the people you talk to may be just code and programs. If that is where we are, the internet is truly dead.

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Although there is no concrete evidence to say the Dead Internet Theory is true, there is plenty of evidence that too much of the internet is dead and that the potential for doing harm is real. This theory that the government is controlling the media using bots may seem dystopian, but unfortunately, is a world we may already be living in.