The Internet is Dying. We Can Still Stop It

The Internet faces an existential crisis as nearly 50% of all traffic is now non-human, with AI-generated content and bots threatening to overwhelm authentic human interaction^[1]. According to recent studies, this includes automated programs responsible for 49.6% of web traffic in 2023, a trend accelerated by AI models scraping content^[1:1].

The problems are stark:

Search engines flooded with AI-generated content optimized for algorithms rather than humans
Social media platforms filled with AI “slop” and automated responses
Genuine human content being drowned out by machine-generated noise
Erosion of trusted information sources and shared truth

However, concrete solutions exist:

Technical Defenses:

Open-source spam filtering tools like mosparo for protecting website forms
AI scraper blocking through systems like Anubis
Content authenticity verification via the CAI SDK^[1:2]

Community Building:

Supporting decentralized social networks (Mastodon, Lemmy)
Using open-source forum platforms that emphasize human moderation
Participating in curated communities with active fact-checking^[1:3]

Individual Actions:

Using privacy-focused browsers and search engines
Supporting trusted news sources and independent creators
Being conscious of data sharing and digital footprint^[1:4]

“While exposure to AI-generated misinformation does make people more worried about the quality of information available online, it can also increase the value they attach to outlets with reputations for credibility,” notes a 2025 study by Campante^[1:5].

It’s FOSS - The Internet is Dying. We Can Still Stop It ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎