John West Says 25% of Web Links Fail as New Book Calls Internet Fragile
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Oct 28
John West Says 25% of Web Links Fail as New Book Calls Internet Fragile
2 articles · Updated · WIRED · Oct 28
Summary
John West’s new book argues the internet is not a durable public archive but a fragile, decaying system warped by manipulation, addictive platform design and AI-generated junk.
An 8,000% surge in bot traffic through 2025 and widespread link rot underpin that case: West cites research showing 25% of New York Times links became inaccessible and over half of Wikipedia entries contain at least one dead reference.
West says the web’s apparent permanence is false, pointing to vanished blogs, abandoned personal sites and platform shocks such as the 2025 TikTok ban scare as evidence that online memory is arbitrary and unstable.
His proposed response is less reform than withdrawal—starving ad-driven platforms of attention and seeking smaller, noncommercial corners of the web where communities and creativity can still survive.