# kb

id: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory-0.md
category: reference
title: Chemtrail conspiracy theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:47.833953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft are actually "chemtrails" consisting of chemical or biological agents, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public. Believers in this conspiracy theory say that while normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, contrails that linger must contain additional substances. Those who subscribe to the theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be solar radiation management, weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, biological or chemical warfare, or testing of biological or chemical agents on a population, and that the trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems. Chemtrail conspiracy theories emerged in the late 1990s after publication of a 1996 United States Air Force (USAF) report on weather modification, with the Air Force accused of secretly spraying substances via aircraft. The theories spread through internet forums and were popularised by radio host Art Bell from 1999. Chemtrails have been dismissed by the scientific community. There is no evidence that purported chemtrails differ from normal water-based contrails routinely left by high-flying aircraft under certain atmospheric conditions. Proponents have tried to prove that chemical spraying occurs, but their analyses have


id: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory-1.md
category: reference
title: Chemtrail conspiracy theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:47.833953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-0
summary:
Proponents of the chemtrail conspiracy theory say that chemtrails can be distinguished from contrails by their long duration, asserting that the chemtrails are those trails left by aircraft that persist for as much as a half-day or transform into cirrus-like clouds. The proponents claim that after 1995, contrails had a different chemical composition and lasted a lot longer in the sky; proponents fail to acknowledge evidence of long-lasting contrails shown in World War II–era photographs. Proponents characterize contrails as streams that persist for hours and that, with their criss-cross, grid-like, or parallel stripe patterns, eventually blend to form large clouds. Proponents view the presence of visible color spectra in the streams, unusual concentrations of sky tracks in a single area, or lingering tracks left by unmarked or military airplanes flying atypical altitudes or locations as markers of chemtrails. Photographs of barrels installed in the passenger space of an aircraft for flight test purposes have been claimed to show aerosol dispersion systems. The barrels' actual purpose is to simulate the weight of passengers or cargo. The barrels are filled with water, and the water can be pumped from barrel to barrel to test different centers of gravity while the aircraft is


id: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory-2.md
category: reference
title: Chemtrail conspiracy theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:47.833953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: chemtrail-conspiracy-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Incidents === In 2001, in response to requests from constituents, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced (but did not author) H.R. 2977 (107th), the Space Preservation Act of 2001, which would have permanently prohibited basing weapons in space, listing chemtrails as one of a number of "exotic weapons" that would be banned. Proponents have interpreted this explicit reference to chemtrails as official government acknowledgment of their existence. Skeptics noted that the bill in question also mentions "extraterrestrial weapons" and "environmental, climate, or tectonic weapons". The bill received an unfavorable evaluation from the United States Department of Defense and died in committee, with no mention of chemtrails appearing in the text of any of Kucinich's three subsequent failed attempts to enact a Space Preservation Act. In 2003, in a response to a petition by concerned Canadian citizens that "chemicals used in aerial sprayings are adversely affecting the health of Canadians", the Government House Leader responded: "There is no substantiated evidence, scientific or otherwise, to support the allegation that there is high altitude spraying conducted in Canadian airspace. The term 'chemtrails' is a popularised expression, and there is no scientific evidence to support their existence." The House leader added, "it is our


id: dead-internet-theory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory-0.md
category: reference
title: Dead Internet theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:49.078633+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dead-internet-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The dead Internet theory is a conspiracy theory that asserts that, since around 2016, the Internet has consisted primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. This alleged coordinated effort aims to control the population and reduce genuine human interaction. Supporters of the theory claim that social bots were deliberately created to manipulate algorithms and enhance search results to influence consumers. Some proponents also accuse government agencies of using bots to shape public perception and opinions. The dead Internet theory gained renewed interest following the AI boom that began in the 2020s, with large language model (LLM) chatbots and text-to-image models emerging as technologies that could theoretically drown out human-authored content on the web. In the time since, social media sites have seen a measured increase in bot activity, such as algorithmic feeds displaying low-quality AI slop at the expense of user-generated content. Despite there being no evidence of a conspiracy, commentators have linked some aspects of the dead Internet theory to this rise in generative content across social media. Sources see the theory as having some amount of truth behind it, or as offering a potentially realistic prediction of the Internet's future. One source uses the


id: dead-internet-theory-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory-1.md
category: reference
title: Dead Internet theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:49.078633+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dead-internet-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== "Leaner" dead Internet theory === In a 2026 article, Hal Berghel discussed what he called a "Leaner" dead Internet Theory, "stripped of paranoia, prejudice, politics and polemic." In this discussion, Berghel points to the 2025 publication in AI & Society by Yoshija Walter, and lists algorithmic generated content, Generative AI byproducts, the difficulty for some people to distingusish between this and human generated content, and the resulting mistrust and misinformation as the core of the dead Internet theory. Berghel laments that conspiracy theorists take these phenomena and to make implausible claims, while arguing that core criticisms should not be dismissed. == Expert view == Caroline Busta, founder of the media platform New Models, was quoted in a 2021 article in The Atlantic calling much of the dead Internet theory a "paranoid fantasy", even if there are legitimate criticisms involving bot traffic and the integrity of the Internet, but she said she does agree with the "overarching idea". A 2021 Ouest-France article, which heavily referenced the 2021 article in The Atlantic, went on to compare the dead Internet theory to flat Earth and COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The article stated that even though bots do produce online content, the dead Internet


id: dead-internet-theory-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory-2.md
category: reference
title: Dead Internet theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:49.078633+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dead-internet-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== Bot traffic === In 2016, the security firm Imperva released a report on bot traffic after examining over 16.7 billion visits to 100,000 randomly selected domains, and found that automated programs were responsible for 52% of web traffic. This report has been used as evidence in reports on the dead Internet theory. Imperva's report for 2023 found that 49.6% of Internet traffic was automated, a 2% rise from 2022, which was partly attributed to artificial intelligence models scraping the web for training content. A 2023 policy paper from the Institutul Diplomatic Român cited this increase in bot traffic as the basis for the dead Internet theory. === Large language models === Generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) are a class of large language models (LLMs) that employ artificial neural networks to produce human-like content. The first of these to be well known was developed by OpenAI. These models have created significant controversy. For example, Timothy Shoup of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies said in 2022, "in the scenario where GPT-3 'gets loose', the Internet would be completely unrecognizable". He predicted that in such a scenario, 99% to 99.9% of content online might be AI-generated by 2025 to 2030. These predictions


id: dead-internet-theory-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory-3.md
category: reference
title: Dead Internet theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:49.078633+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dead-internet-theory-20260505-0
summary:
=== TikTok === In 2024, TikTok began discussing offering the use of virtual influencers to advertising agencies. In a 2024 article in Fast Company, journalist Michael Grothaus linked this and other AI-generated content on social media to the dead Internet theory. In this article, he referred to the content as "AI slime". === YouTube === YouTube is susceptible to fake views generated by computers, not human users, and fake views were so prevalent that some engineers were concerned YouTube's algorithm for detecting them would begin to treat the fake views as default and start misclassifying real ones. YouTube engineers coined the term "the Inversion" to describe this phenomenon. YouTube bots and the fear of "the Inversion" were cited as support for the dead Internet theory in a thread on the Internet forum Melonland. === SocialAI === SocialAI, an app created on September 18, 2024, by Michael Sayman, was created with the full purpose of chatting with only AI bots without human interaction. An article on the Ars Technica website linked SocialAI to the dead Internet theory. === Digg === On June 23, 2025, Alexis Ohanian, one of the Reddit co-founders, said he thought he "long subscribed to the dead Internet


id: fogvid-24-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fogvid-24-0.md
category: reference
title: Fogvid-24
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fogvid-24
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:39:50.262881+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fogvid-24-20260505-0
summary:
Fogvid-24 is a social-media conspiracy theory alleging that unusual winter fog in late 2024 and early 2025 was toxic or engineered—variously described as a chemical or biological weapon, "smart dust," or a cover for hidden activity—and that it caused clusters of flu-like symptoms. The term Fogvid-24 was popularised on platforms such as TikTok and X during a period of widespread fog in North America and the United Kingdom. Fact-checkers and meteorologists attributed the reports to ordinary foggy conditions, seasonal respiratory illness, and misinterpretation of visual effects under lights, noting there is no evidence that the fog was engineered or that it contained harmful agents. == Background == In late December 2024, dense fog and freezing fog were widely reported in parts of the United States and the United Kingdom, disrupting transport and prompting routine advisories. During the same period, posts and short videos circulated claiming the fog was unusually thick, smelled "chemical," or left people unwell shortly after exposure; commenters began referring to the phenomenon as Fogvid-24. == Claims == == Responses and expert commentary == Meteorologists and public-health communicators state there is no evidence that the fog was engineered or toxic, and that winter fog is expected under certain


