#theinternetisdying

Perhaps due to the febrile nature of the times we live in, the tech-savvy community seems to have become aware of various trends, leading them to conclude that #theinternetisdying. This term itself is imprecise. The internet is a series of abstractions, ranging from physical infrastructure to software and functions upon which communication, messaging, video streaming, app data, transactions, and web pages operate.

So technically, #theinternetisdying is actually #thewebisdying.

So why now?

I believe the most intriguing question regarding #theinternetisdying is this: why now? What has occurred is more about internet users awakening from their ‘comfort zone’ and abruptly realising how rapidly things have evolved? I believe that a number of inciting incidents are the cause of this sudden wakefulness:

• Google as regressive ‘tax’ rather than marketing channel exposed.
• Continued deterioration of Google web search.
• Link rot.
• Online media businesses look to make money by selling proprietary and user-generated content to LLMs as a revenue stream.
• Realisation that a lot of web content is adapted or created using LLMs. The non-English web has been expanded by machine translation of English language content. Secondly, LLMs have been used…