Conspiracy theories sometimes attract attention because they are difficult to prove. This time it's about the internet, that the virtual world has actually been dead for a long time in a theory known as the 'Dead Internet Theory'.
The conspiracy theory states that the true internet actually ceased to exist between 2016 or 2017.
This does not mean that the internet cannot be used. Until now, people continue to use the internet as before, even on a larger scale, such as posting on social media.
However, the problem lies in that most of what netizens see on the internet is the work of bots, not real people. That is the basis of the conspiracy theory.
One of the popular explanations for this theory was written by a netizen named the Illuminati Pirate with the title 'Dead Internet Theory: Most of the Internet is Fake'. It explains how today's internet is created and controlled by artificial intelligence and filled with bots.
"I've seen the same posts, the same photos and the same replies posted over and over again over the years," he said.
With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), companies lure netizens into buying their products and governments spread propaganda.
So is this theory correct? It's hard to argue that the internet today is different from a few years ago. Algorithms are getting more sophisticated and internet giants are in power.
What we are seeing more and more is the result of AI and algorithms. But Futurism argues, even though there are more and more bots, there is still a lot of real human-made content on the internet.
"But internet users also see the fact that a lot of the content they see from memes, TikTok, to tweets is still made by real people, at least for now," said Futurism.
