# How The Internet Died **URL:** https://teo9i.com/t/how-the-internet-died/7855 **Category:** Culture **Tags:** teh-internet **Created:** [August 14, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://teo9i.com/t/how-the-internet-died/7855 "2025-08-14T21:38:11Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![REALITY](https://teo9i.com/user_avatar/teo9i.com/reality/32/25124_2.png) [@REALITY](https://teo9i.com/u/REALITY) #### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://teo9i.com/t/how-the-internet-died/7855/1 "2025-08-14T21:38:11Z")
[ ![](https://teo9i.com/uploads/default/original/3X/2/2/229ccf2b898b6c0d99dfa66ee35dac7eaf6124a6.jpeg) ](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!PM_S!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1e2fcbaa-618d-46b8-8bb1-f3b7fb06accb_4032x3024.jpeg) Photo by [John Cameron](https://unsplash.com/@john_cameron?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-black-computer-tower-Z7pQAI0KLBg?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash). > **Note from Matt** : Yeah, this newsletter is more than 10,000 words. It’s — in the language of my people — an [absolute unit](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2018/04/history-behind-absolute-unit/). As a result, you won’t be able to read this in your inbox. You’ll have to click through and open it in your browser, or through the Substack app. * * * In 2021 — more than one year before the release of ChatGPT — a user on the online forum AgoraRoad called IlluminatiPirate [described the “dead internet theory,”](https://forum.agoraroad.com/index.php?threads/dead-internet-theory-most-of-the-internet-is-fake.3011/) which claimed that since 2016, the majority of online activity has been driven by bots operated by shadowy actors with a desire to shape public opinion… > **[How The Internet Died](https://www.whatwelo.st/p/how-the-internet-died)** > > Dissecting a tragedy of the commons