A few years back, I wrote about the internet being dead, but here in 2025 I wanted to revisit this topic seeing how it’s now deader than dead. I did not expect nor want to have to write follow up article discussing how much worse it’s gotten, with the issues I mentioned being far from better, and with the added level of new threats facing the free internet many people grew up with and came to love. The internet has been slowly dying as I declared in the last article, but I think 2025 might be the year that everyone else realizes just how dead it really is to the point where 2025 might even be the year we can officially call its time of death. The internet was already dead, but now its carcass is being made into a feast to be made into energy to fatten up those who already have too much power. Any technology that has a potential to be a weapon dissent and challenge power must be controlled and neutralized. This is nothing new, the only thing that has changed is the technology.
I was not hoping to write another article about this, but here we are, it's 2025, and the internet is still dead.
You might have heard the term “dead internet theory” – a theory that supposes that most of the internet is bot activity. It’s freaky to think about, but whether you believe the theory or not, the bots are online, they are here, and they are affecting everything. They affect how platforms operate, affect how we use the internet, our experience of it, how we interact, and can even affect the way we think. This is most obvious with Youtube and the effects AI has had on the platform, as Youtube both employs and fights with AI. I’m going to pick on Youtube for a bit just because so many use it every day and is an easy example of how AI is impacting our usage and experience of the internet. With the scale of Youtube’s platform, its number of users, creators, the endless amount of content, and the infinite rate at which videos are uploaded to the site, in order to keep things manageable, Google would HAVE to make use of some AI to help moderate their platform, otherwise Youtube would just not work. Even though Google is a massive tech corporation with access to very advanced technology, algorithms and AI, computers are still stupid and will make a lot of mistakes because they don’t think or have common sense. This has led to the massive problem that many Youtube creators face, the risk of losing their channel, their audience and their income. The fate of people’s livelihoods are in the hands of machines, and the amount of hoops people have to jump through just to get an actual human to review their case, all because their machines decided to terminate them or give them an undeserved strike are a long and miserable experience.
But it is not just creators who will be feeling the effects of AI. There’s also the new age-verification feature that will also be decided by their AI. People are worried about the real concern of being forced to give their personal details because their machines decided they were under 18, but Google just says “just trust the AI”, as if we have any reasons to with he track record of their AI. There is the AI of the Youtube algorithim that no one understands where the most recommended videos are those that appeal to the lowest common denominator. It is a system that rewards and incentivises JUNK content that keeps people watching, more and more and more. With the growing irrelevance of subscribed channels and discovering videos on your own, Youtube REALLY wants their platform to be like Tiktok, where people wouldn’t even need to use the search button, or have to look for videos, they just want to SERVE you videos with barely any user inputs so ad-watching can be a seamless experience. They do not want you to think, they want their algorithm to just feed you content. No conscious thought required, you just go on Youtube, click what they show you, and watch their ads.
Google’s own AI aren’t the only ones affecting their platform however, as other people have also been making use of AI bots themselves. AI comments, AI channels, and AI slop content farms. They use it for thumbnails, they use it for footage, and sometimes they use it for videos themselves.
While it might look like something plaguing youtube, if you think about it, the Youtube platforms incentivises that sort of low effort content. In modern day youtube, creators are not king, retention and engagement is. You HAVE to make an enticing thumbnail and tempting video title. You must do a series of practices in order for the algorithmic gods to reward you, only then can you get your bag. You need to be able to churn out engaging thumbnails almost every day, the more you do that, the more ads Youtube can show you. AI simplifies this and makes it easier than ever to shit out low effort mindless garbage. Youtube absolutely LOVES AI and would be more than happy to have everything on their platform to be AI. They want to turn EVERYTHING into AI until there is no man left.
You can see this estatic optimism for AI in these new AI “features” they’ve been rolling out on the platform, one of which is “Auto-dub”. What Auto-dub does, is it uses AI to translate videos in a foreign language to wherever the viewers are from. No one really likes it, and you can’t even turn it off, but removing language barriers means people have a wider selection of videos to choose from, which means people watching more ads, baby! There’s also been this other sneaky “feature” that has been slowly creeping its way into videos. Youtube has been secretly gradually turning people into AI; Youtube doesn’t just want us to use AI for videos, they want us to BECOME the AI too so we can have total clanker domination of the platform.
It’s not only Youtube that has embraced the AI boom, but other platforms and tech companies like X with their Grok chatbot. "Grok, what time is it?”, "grok", how do I put my clothes on?”, “grok, is this apple I’m holding real?” While these AI bots might be useful in limiting the spread of misinformation, asking chatbots like Grok for everything is not only lazy, but makes us dumber by offloading the skill of actively finding information to machines. These are basic skills, and if less people online have them, you will have a world wide web of simpletons.
Chatbots are good at some things, like quickly gathering information to get a general idea of something you want to know more about, like what to look for when purchasing a certain thing that could demand a level of research beforehand—which could take time that AI could save you—or finding information to a question that might not be so easy to find through search terms in search engines, but because of how easy and user friendly it is, there’s the risk of being too dependent on such technology. More and more people are relying on it for important things like university work, and tech fields like programming. While such technology can be good tools for learning, they should not be a replacement for doing actual work or anything that would replace gaining experience. We must stress the importance of being able to do things for ourselves. If you have hands and legs, you should use them, and if you have a brain, as the saying goes, use it or lose it!
Platforms like Youtube and X might adore AI, but it isn’t all peachy as there’s one part of AI they have been fighting with for a long time. Botted comments. Platforms have been rampant with clankers and chipheads. Sometimes they’re a simple bot spamming the same messages trying to get you to click something, or clankers trying to pose as real people. This has led to platforms taking measures to counter these meatless bleepers, which has affected real people’s usage of these platforms. Like with Youtube, how often do you take the effort to write a thoughtful comment on a youtube video, or respond to another comment, only to find out that the comment doesn’t exist when you look at the comments on a private window? Our Youtube comments are moderated by bots and no one knows how they work, what they filter, and why. Even if you use inoffensive words, even if you self censor and spell potential offensive words differently or with asterisks like “***”, your comments are not safe. We are being forced to change the way we write, and in turn change the way we think. Because of this, we are forced to write our messages as if the receivers will be children and we now have to self censor. The YouTube comment section has changed for the worst as it deters people from using it, if the experience of this feature is so bad, it might as well not exist. There are no real rules or guidelines on what is and isn’t allowed in youtube comments, they just secretly hide your comments. Why comment at all if we are too afraid of wasting our time and effort on a post no one will see? We should not have to feel paranoia for normal conversation, or sharing our views on a video, and it should certainly not be in the hands of an AI system. But it’s not just YouTube that hides your comments without telling you, but other places like Reddit, and X. This is called shadowbanning, and platforms use shadowbanning prevent spam bots, at least that’s what they say it’s for. Whether or not it’s for bots, it makes the internet worse for everybody and impacts our use of these platforms.
The comment section isn’t the only YouTube feature that’s become useless however, the search function too. If you search anything, it will only show you a few videos related to the things you actually searched for, with the rest being irrelevant shit you didn’t ask for. When people search for videos, they don’t want to find videos they’ve already watched, or videos from channels they already watch, they just want what they searched for. Why would you have an option to have the user do something just to have it do the opposite of what they’re asking for? What is the point? Why can’t things JUST WORK? Why must everything get WORSE AND WORSE? Why must they always take something that works only to make it worse and break it?
It is bad enough when we have people spamming regular low effort garbage slop, now we have AI flavoured slop too. We have a plethora of UGLY, stupid, effortless content offending our eyes with its ugly uncanny faces, our ears with their inhuman robotic voices, and offending our minds with their nonsensical content. Notice how we describe anything on the internet these days as just “content”. Everything is “content”. Content to mindlessly consume, to prime us into a permanent state of consumption rather than creation. Content to engage with, but engaged in a superficial way of habit, mindlessness, passivity, compulsion and programmed behaviours determined by content platforms. Videos are content, music is content, text posts are content, your thoughts and notes in productivity apps are content, if it’s online, it’s just content, and this “content” only serves these tech platforms to monetize the fuck out of everything. So what’s wrong with this “content”? The problem with content is that it is always about quantity over quality. It is in the interests of the platforms that host them to have the content machines churn out whatever garbage will keep people using their apps and services. What this means is that the people who make engagement bait, or just put out bullshit without any research or fact checking, or just straight up softcore porn, get ahead, while people who make actual good content made with effort get burnt out from needing to keep up with the trash content. At that point, the “content” is not content at all, for they have no content, it’s just rubbish.
I miss the days of simple static banner ads on the side, for they were nothing compared to the ads we have to deal with today. Sometimes they flashed and moved, but they were out of the way. You didn’t have them literally BREAKING the websites you’re visiting. Why must we be forced to have an adblocker by default just to have a normal web browsing experience? Who is even going to be NOT blocking ads when you wreck sites like this? Who’s going to see your ads when you make them as intrusive as they are? I’m not even talking about YouTube, I’m just talking about ads you’d find practically ANYWHERE online. And when it’s not ads, it’s some other random popups getting in your face telling you shit you don’t care about, blocking you and breaking your flow and your connection to the things you want to see. Unnecessary cognitive load. They’re everywhere, all over the internet, they follow you around, and they’re full of Javascript and tracking JUNK you don’t want. These cancerous ads and popups are another knife thrust upon the internet contributing to its slow death.
The internet we have today is made for idiots. Everything is made for the lowest common denominator of the populace. The louder and stupider something is, the more engagement, clout, and attention it gets. Everything is about reactions, and when you’re reacting, you’re not thinking. Those who know how to tap in to people’s primal reactions and biases will be rewarded. We call this type of thing “rage-bait” and the reason it exists is because the modern internet allowed it to exist, the modern web births ragebaiters by making it profitable. The LOUDER and more EXTREME you can be, the more people will listen, and this is how critical thinking dies; it narrows down everything into extreme binary boxes that you need to be 100% in line with. When you’re reacting, you’re not thinking, in other words, being angry makes you stupid, and people are angry online all the time. You need to have an opinion on this random thing right now, and then have an opinion on this other random thing tomorrow. To these rage-baiters, it’s just a game to them, and it’s the fools being played. E-celebs are now just normal celebrities who have turned the internet into gossip and reality TV cancer we left behind on traditional television. On X (twitter), those who pay for premium can monetize their posts, and what types of posts do the best? People are actually being PAID TO TROLL, paid to troll and mislead. If people are liking, replying, reposting and quoting the tweets, it doesn’t matter how people respond to it, it’s getting engagement which means money, baby! Easy cash! Here’s an idea, be as foul and bigoted as possible within the rules of the platform and wait for guaranteed replies, great idea for the “public square” of the internet, where outrage farmers reign supreme. Don’t hate the player, hate the game!
It should go without saying that the direction that the internet is going is a major threat to our freedom as people. The internet used to be a place, we even called it “the world wide web”, because it was a world, a different world, a world of hope. The internet was freedom, freedom from the shit reality we had to live through. It was a free place where we had the power, the power to speak our minds and browse as we pleased; these days, it’s just an extension of our shitty real world with the internet now being shoved into every aspect of our lives. We were free once, but the fun is over, safe content only.
Anyone with sense would know to never trust the government with anything, ESPECIALLY technology, and now that they have been getting their hands on the internet, a dystopian hell is what happens. “Protecting the children” is always how it starts, and it’s never where it ends.
July 2025 was a dark time for Britons, but it did not stop at the UK, it was only the beginning of the end for internet freedom in many places throughout the world and into a new age of normalized censorship and government control. It started as “protecting the children” that’s how they get the foot in the door, and once Big Brother State gets his foot in, he makes his way in your house wreaking all sorts of havoc.
Our data is important, and keeping our personal data safe is a challenge enough without these new identification laws, but now the door has been opened, where the people’s safety is at risk for the benefit of state control and digital surveillance. We cannot allow ourselves to be lax over the erasure of boundaries and live in a world where it’s normal to be handing out our data like candy. Not only is there the concern of spying from anyone who has access to it, but attacks, breaches and data leaks from bad security. The best way to avoid your personal information entering the wrong hands is to be more selective of who gets your data. The less people you have to trust, the better.
But one might foolishly ask “what would I need privacy for? Isn’t that for criminals?” Anyone can be a criminal. A criminal is merely someone the government doesn’t like. If you don’t care about privacy, I urge you to take down every curtain and every set of blinds you have in your house, and to remove the lock screen security you have on your phone. Why not tell your phone number and address to everyone you meet? You’ve got nothing to hide right? Maybe write a detailed report of everything you did this week, including everyone involved with you and send it to everyone, email it to every contact, and post it on your facebook to make the whole world know how much of a boring sheepish person you are. The foolish idea that we should not need privacy can only come from a place of privilege, but when that privilege disappears and everything turns on you, the need for privacy becomes apparent. Some bad people might benefit from privacy, but it is not worth the cost of removing it for everybody, and anyone who says otherwise would be far more dangerous than any criminal.
Censorship is back in style, baby! Censorship is a recurring pest that every generation has to face, and so many times, censorship loses. Things have been quiet in the past 20 years, you could say it was a golden age for creativity. We were spoilt, so full of hope, there was a rare moment of peace, but it’s that time again for that peace to be disturbed by those who want to threaten it. Back in the 90s, you had religious pressure groups trying to sanitize any media that would offend their moralistic sensibilities. The year is 2025, and those types of groups never went away, and they are rearing their ugly head once again. Whether their belief is religious or secular, they are pure moralists that employ authoritarian means to get what they want. They want control, they want the power to bend the world to their will. When they vocally make their presence, it is your duty to give them hell, no mercy at all. For those who threaten everyone’s freedom, those who want to impede on expression and the arts, let them bear the fury of those who choose freedom over control and paternalism.
Payment processors like VISA afraid of getting sued like what happened with the human trafficking lawsuit against Pornhub. The possibility of these lawsuits scared the duopoly into be aggressively censorship happy, for the good of “their brand”, as they would put it. So anything explicit or potentially problematic would have to be abolished, to be on the safe side, at the cost of people being able to buy things that are completely legal and harm free. The trickle down effect on the wider-web just shows how much power these 2 companies have. What we are seeing online is how it is offline too. 2 companies with the power of people’s livelihoods. This didn’t just happen, it was always there, in the background, only waiting for the reality to set in for those active in the online world.
You go on a website and notice that it’s taking forever to load, you then land on an error page and think “that’s odd”. You immediately think that it’s on your end, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong. You go on another website, and it’s the same thing again. What is going on?
How much faith in the internet would you have if you were to know that 33% of the internet uses one web host, and if this web host happens goes down, 33% of websites will be unreachable? This is as alarming as it is as real, because 33.3% of the internet uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host their websites. In October 2025, websites that used AWS went down, and this outage was certainly felt. Companies that rely on AWS can include big players too, like Netflix and Disney! So if AWS is down, so will many others, even your bank could be relying on Amazon AWS!
We can’t do much about other people using the same hosts, but that doesn’t mean that you have to use it for your site if you were to have one. If you run a website, don’t be part of the 33% that goes down.
Like with anything else in the world, the internet has changed, but these changes have not been good ones, but this does not have to be our fate. The internet should belong to the people and at the control of people. The internet must be at the will of our hands, and to do that, it must be clawed back from the clutches of our masters, the masters we must overrule, and to do that, we cannot have an internet of consumers for algorithms and junk content, we must be fearless creators!
With these issues of the modern internet and being burnt out from it all, being offline is the new online. The internet used to be a place to take a break from the world, but with the whole world being on the internet, being offline in the real world is now our break from the world. A break from being distracted, tracked, watched and treated as tools for people to make money, whether it’s individual grifters, or corporations. The internet has gone to the shitter, and people need a break from it. But we should not cede ground to those who want to run what was a place of liberation and sanctuary into the ground plunged into the filth of the rest of the world ruled by tyrants! We should not give the internet to those who want to take it away from us, to take away our autonomy, creativity, and individuality.
Do not be an accessory for corporations. Do not be a consumer of algorithims, be a creator!
An internet that corporations and governments can control cannot be free!