What if most of the internet isn't real?

In this episode, we unpack the Dead Internet Theory — from its origins on an obscure vaporwave forum to the Imperva report confirming bots now generate 51% of all web traffic.

We follow the trail through Shrimp Jesus engagement farms, Russia's AI-powered disinformation networks, a $2 bot that can flood the web with 10,000 fake comments, and the spectacular 60-day collapse of Digg's relaunch.

Along the way, we meet a KGB defector who predicted all of this in 1985, a French president who received a deepfake of his own overthrow, and the CEO of OpenAI getting compared to a man in a hot dog suit.

The internet might not be dead — but it's on life support, and the nurses are bots.

Got a story of your own? Something unexplained? Something that still keeps you up at night?

Send it to [email protected] or message me directly at patreon.com/talesfromthedark. Your story could be next.

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