Dead Internet Theory: Are Social Media Mostly Populated by Bots Now?

The Dead Internet Theory is making rounds on social media again. People fear that AI and bot accounts have replaced humans as the prominent residents of the internet.

Is there any substance to these claims? Well, there kind of is.

Dead Internet Theory: Meaning and Origins

The Dead Internet Theory first appeared in message boards and online forums in the early 2010s as a conspiracy theory that social media, as we know it now, will soon be populated by AI.

The theory states that all contents, accounts, and interactions we will encounter in the future will be made by machines rather than humans.

A thought-provoking topic, the theory has appeared several times across the year as part of arguments on AI dystopia.

The theory became a more common term when OpenAI went viral in 2021 as some users felt the AI apocalypse may actually come true one day.

Dead Internet Theory, Revived Again

The theory received renewed attention after X (formerly Twitter) user @LarioSubpar claimed they discovered the "biggest evidence towards Dead Internet Theory."

The account claimed that the majority of the replies in the cat video they reposted were bot accounts communicating with each other.

Following the accounts show a majority of them interacting with other bot accounts under popular posts. Majority of the replies are incomprehensible or not even connected to the actual post.

Yet no matter the content of the post, each one is ensured to have millions of views. It is not far-fetched for people to think that AIs indeed took over the majority of social media. Even Forbes took notice of the phenomenon.

What Really is Happening

While there is no proof that bots have finally dominated society on social media, there is enough evidence that bot accounts became more prevalent on X. Since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022 and made the verification mark purchasable, automated accounts were fronted over legitimate posts. It has later been found on the same thread claiming the Dead Internet Theory that a Vietnamese group is operating the majority of the bot accounts.

Their purpose: earn engagement revenue by making the bots interact with the most viewed posts. What happens is the bots interact with each other in a perpetual nonsensical conversation.

Despite the small incentive offered to each account, automating an army of bots to flood each and every popular post is sure to earn some guaranteed cash.

In some instances, the accounts are even hired to promote scam crypto links, another common sight when certain keywords are posted.

Some users even took advantage of the bots to spam people's notifications during online arguments.

In short, these bots have existed since Twitter and will continue to increase if no proper actions are taken. However, it does not mean that AI has finally taken over the internet.