Dead Internet theory

The dead Internet theory is a conspiracy theory that asserts that, since around 2016, the Internet has consisted primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. This alleged coordinated effort aims to control the population and reduce genuine human interaction. Supporters of the theory claim that social bots were deliberately created to manipulate algorithms and enhance search results to influence consumers. Some proponents also accuse government agencies of using bots to shape public perception and opinions.

The dead Internet theory gained renewed interest following the AI boom that began in the 2020s, with large language model (LLM) chatbots and text-to-image models emerging as technologies that could theoretically drown out human-authored content on the web. In the time since, social media sites have seen a measured increase in bot activity, such as algorithmic feeds displaying low-quality AI slop at the expense of user-generated content.

Despite there being no evidence of a conspiracy, commentators have linked some aspects of the dead Internet theory to this rise in generative content across social media. Sources see the theory as having some amount of truth behind it, or as offering a potentially realistic prediction of the Internet's future. One source uses the term "Dead Internet" to describe spaces online that host generative content, explicitly dropping the word "theory."