What If You DESTROYED The INTERNET? | DEBUNKED

We investigate how the internet could be taken down, the consequences of an Internet Apocalypse, and if it could all be done by a single person.
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Stu K - Researcher | Producer | Animator | Editor | Illustrator | Presenter
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SOURCES:
EMARKETER, BBC, THE DRUM, STATISTA, DIGITAL COMMERCE 360, PC MAG, FORBES, WE ARE SOCIAL, IWS, DAILY TELEGRAPH, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, CNET, ADWEEK, MCKINSEY, BUSINESS INSIDER, TUBEFILTER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, FLANDERS TODAY, CBR, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, GNI, NPR, AL JAZEERA, NY TIMES, DIGITAL TRENDS, THE ECONOMIST, TECH CRUNCH, ENGADGET, SCHNEIER.COM, THE ATLANTIC, LAPTOP MAGAZINE, VERDICT, DOMO, POPULAR MECHANICS, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, METRO, CSO ONLINE, CPO MAGAZIN, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEWSWEEK, TELEGEOGRAPHY, ABC, LIFEWIRE, TIME, NBC, INTELLIGENT CISO, THE REGISTER, STUFF AND WIRED.

[@DebunkedOfficial]

What would you do if the internet just...went?

[@noblephoenix6151]

Be glad I invested in silver and hard assets instead of crypto. But, it would be a world for entrepreneurs. All big business would collapse. Some communities would grow closers, some would infight and loot. I would also be vary glad that I own a gun for self defense, the police where I live are corrupt and useless.

[@1714h]

Debunked um... I think what you are talking about is no electricity because without internet we won’t have any usage for phones and thing but it feels like your talking about not having electricity because some of what your talking about is mainly electric based of not internet

[@bobwendel34]

Chill maybe fish idk

[@zrkiboi2083]

Gulag people

[@putyograsseson]

Noble Phoenix rip

[@mantha6912]

The lesson: start writing down the ip addresses of your favorite websites to survive a netpocalypse

[@RoiEXLab]

Actually just getting a custom router or something that remembers the addresses for an extended amount of time might just be enough ^^

[@jenn5774]

Unfortunately, the websites use dns lookups for most things on the backend and probably wouldnt work either. Blockchain based DNS meshnet would solve it though.

[@The_Pixel_Goat]

There would be IP dealers, who sell the IP addresses of the main websites.

[@jeboyconner4334]

Angry kids on Xbox live would be pros in that

[@MidlifePanda]

Good idea, doesn't work. You can run CMD on Windows and use the "ping xxx" command, where xxx i an internet adress such as www.google.com. Now it tries to ping the website and shows you the ip adress it got from the dns server. Now you can try to enter that adress into your browser directly. On google it usually works but on more complex sites, that rely heavy on personalized content and are heavily scripted (e.g. ebay) it doesnt work at all or just redirects you to the "mother" site (eg. the ip for youtube gets you to the google homepage). (If you want to try it for yourself and it only shows an IPv6 adress you can run the command with "-4" at the end ("ping www.google.de -4) to get the IPv4 adress.)

[@katakana1]

One person couldn't take down the internet, but a certain star could with a certain solar storm...

[@otakuakshat1710]

Its happening brah

[@mysticarchfire]

It's incredibly disappointing to think we'd go to ruin if the internet died, millennia without it, we've had it for less than a century and are now glued to it

[@Cylius.]

I mean it cant really die unless nobody wants to bring it back up... we still have the knowledge of how to do maintenance and how to rebuild this stuff, so it really isn't as bad as you would think... we would maybe have to wait a few months until the internet is completely back and a few years to repair the lasting damage.

[@seanrosenau2088]

Two Sentence Horror Story: Day 400. Still no internet.

[@nathansciarone5627]

South park did an episode about that :)

[@ageshero]

We existed before the internet. So maybe we’d figure it out.

[@jamesupton4996]

Did we? Or are we in the Matrix?

[@hephaestus6365]

This would bring the world back to some sense, I'm sure. I hope it happens.

[@dylanholicky8709]

Hephaestus chaos at first but over 50 years or maybe more it would make the world a better place. And even if it is shut down we can always build a new system

[@aRandomwacko]

@@dylanholicky8709 i agree with the both of you

[@jamesupton4996]

I grew up before the internet. What really worries me is how ubiquitous it has become. I can hardly do anything these days, from my job, to personal banking and dealing with officialdom without being able to log on. Even booking theatre tickets. I've just had three months or so without access at home and it was hell.

[@BHNative]

I have been using the internet for 18 years. It's crazy to think about it. Gotta thank my dad for being an early adept and teaching me how to use the computer.

[@DebunkedOfficial]

A 'game changer' doesn't quite do it justice does it!

[@josephrhodenhiser935]

Coronavirus: I can incite fear that drives people to panic buy at the grocery store under the spectre of economic collapse. Global Internet outage: Hold my beer...

[@MrRickieColl]

Last time Whatsapp went off, I felt extremely free. It was awesome. I hate being so reachable. Sometimes I just want to be left alone.

[@X11CHASE]

Nothings forcing you, sounds like a you problem.

[@rajatdogra96]

Same

[@justandy333]

Turn off notifications. Thats what I do

[@alicechew2906]

I can't imagine our lives if there were no internets,back to the olden days.

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

The internet is our drug, it'd be impossible to simply erase it out of existence. Unless you had an Infinity Gauntlet.

[@pieguywithafry]

What about an EMP? Or solar flare that knocks down the grid? I wouldn’t say it’s impossible

[@grace90xgracer40]

Can u blame us.... It's probably the only thing humans created that's completely INVISIBLE and probably faster than the speed of light. I bet the internet impresses God more than anything else man made.

[@SxVaNm345]

Grace90x Gracer The Internet is a sign of our future

[@dappitydoo4774]

Hardcore meth is my drug

[@averageboi5195]

Just Some Guy without a Mustache to be fair the internet has done so much good we can’t get rid of it

[@heavymeddle28]

I'm an old stone age knuckedragger. Born 1971 and 49 years old. I've heard old legends about the golden times when people actually were outside playing and meeting friends. Physical friends. But I'm just an old rambling fool. What do I know? 🤔

[@andrewscasualmtb]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4PdkqJrZ9OXhKM

[@theaceofspades485]

I'm from 88 and there was still plenty of that. I would say somewhere around 2000 (blackberry phones) did the internet in your hand and your head down in your phone become the social normal.

[@heavymeddle28]

@@theaceofspades485 yes. Maybe my memory isn't what it used to be but your username brings memories back... I saw Motörhead live once. Goosebumps!.. But that is of topic. Just wanted to say that what I was talking about maybe is just legends and myths. We sat outside smoking pot a lot and snorted speed so my memory might be affected by the sunshine ☀

[@mrtony80]

Yeah, and you've adapted from life w/o internet to life with it. You're used to it, and would have a tough time just like everyone else if it somehow went down.

[@jadehernandez8156]

@@theaceofspades485 Your username sounds like my fav. band called IV of Spades. Try listen to their songs. I would recommend you "Hey Barbara", "take that man" and "come inside of my heart". Give it a try, you would absolutely love it ❤️

[@andycostanzo8057]

So does this mean that the only way to prevent the internet from dying is to have a lot more companies to run the internet instead of a small amount of companies?!🤨🤔🧐😳

[@silver17yearsago66]

Me:hastily copies KZbin's IP address and writes it down

[@seraphina985]

Just an FYI the google cache servers that serve as the front end will present the google homepage if there is no domain in the URL.

[@xelusprime]

Recently had 4 deep sea cables break hindering internet speeds drastically, but still functional. Apparently some land slide or something broke 2 of the cables, they didn't say what happened to the other 2, since they were only reported 2 months after, even though all 4 apparently broke about the same time.

[@tylerl4455]

*makes this video* *next day the internet goes down*

[@theguywhoexiststitleofexis782]

@Morgan Smith r/whoosh

[@Noobpopcan]

11:07 Wait... a minute

[@TheTuxedoCreeper]

Video Games don't cause violence, lag does!

[@josha254]

And idiots that leave once it's clear they're losing

[@themenacingpenguin.7152]

and spawn campers, repetitively dying to some jackass for 3 minutes straight is not my ideal match.

[@aaron6270]

Thanks for doing the research on this!

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Thanks for watching

[@davidlu3725]

"Global Pandamics" well would you look at that

[@justyourfriendlyneighborho2061]

Just what I was gonna type!

[@guywhotriestogetalife5041]

*Then Create a Back-up Internet*

[@Crashed131963]

There was no internet before the early 1990s , so it is not like no internet was not done before.

[@hazmat5749]

The problem is the time it would take to go back to a non-internet based system - weeks possibly months without food, power and water.

[@Cylius.]

I mean even if it gets shut down it's not like its gone... it can be brought back up...

[@Emily_M81]

I work for a major telecomm company. The software used to connect huge data pipes to one another to make parts of the internet work is ANCIENT, it has fields in kbps lol. This also means, in theory, I COULD take out large chunks of the internet in the United States, but all of it? I'd very like have my ID revoked before that happened lol... and I'm probably overestimating on what I could actually get disconnected; there's probably failsafes in place if a bunch of disconnect orders suddenly start getting pushed out by a rogue employee XD.

[@Nephilim27]

Who else is here due to the news that our internet will probably be knocked out for weeks or permanently, due to a massive solar storm that's already hurdling towards earth and will hit by Monday?

[@otakuakshat1710]

Me

[@1967buickriviera]

Lmao

[@Blueknight1960]

People have survived without the internet for thousands of years, there's no reason they wouldn't survive now. Yes for the 1st few years it would be a pain, but cell phones would still work after the internet is gone, so retailers could still order but, it would be by phone. Of course the newer generation would most likely just drop dead because they've never lived without the internet.

[@FJUVHJDSR]

Back then the internet world wasn't internet based, now... It is, Lemme ask you this, if you have money are you with every single penny as we speak... It's probably in your bank No matter how rich you are, if the internet goes off and 97% OF your wealth is in the bank, your broke💀💀💀... Chaos strikes,

[@mat5267]

I think you underestimate how much infrastructure relies on the internet.

[@DuniaMienandWein]

Well Recently there was blackout in my City, about 2 days without Internet, It sure is Anoying Live without it ✨😢😢😢✨, Great Video

[@derealized797]

The technology we have today is impressive. But no matter how advanced it gets, we're already far too dependent on it, we literally couldn't survive without it. Sometimes I wonder if this is history repeating itself, if becoming too dependent on our technology has happened before. We don't know because another thing that happens over and over, we keep destroying our past, either like what happened to the library of Alexandria or because of other situations where the past is purposely destroyed or rewritten.

[@theprodigy9617]

We could survive 100% without tech

[@derealized797]

@@theprodigy9617 not 100% of us. Maybe WE can. But it also depends on what the details are... I mean if we can hunt our own food and live off grid ok. But like no electricity. Or if the internet went down entirely, it would have harsher consequences than just a bunch of millenials suddenly not sure what to do with their hands. Everything is connected to the internet now. So I guess if you're not in a major city. And you don't spend all your time learning to take selfies and vlog about fast food restaurants. I know a few things, idetentify wild edible plants, how to make soap with wood ash, gunpowder and a bunch of other things. And it would still be hard to get used to for me.

[@TheJonathanSavage]

This is over a year old with less than 100k views. Tragic.

[@CoopaTheGreat]

I’m in the mid of the video and am really hoping he doesn’t tell us how to turn it off

[@uniqueokk]

13:52 left to right, left to right.

[@John__-ie3od]

Shutting down anything will ALWAYS hurt those who are the lower end of the hierarchy. Including almost any regulation done to anything, e.g. taxation, criminalization of anything, tariffs, etc.

[@user-ol7bt4wp1j]

Meh i don’t care

[@Wicked_Knight]

A Carrington Event level CME (Coronal Mass Ejection)could potentially take out the entire internet, though at that point the internet would only one of a long list services to go down and would take a long time to get things back up and running to pre-event levels.

[@nonamelegend_vapor]

4:24 👀 A lot can happen in a year

[@claire88058]

your videos are wonderful. i love the qualtiy

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Thanks very much! Glad you like them!

[@redking1333]

I support the internet apocalypse

[@hazardhound4514]

It wouldn't be that hard to reset to the 90's, and don't think preparations haven't been made.

[@catatoblob8598]

Does your company spend a lot of time teaching you how to operate dinosaur systems from 30 years ago? Because if the internet fails, everyone's going to have to be able to do that to keep even basic features of civilization running.

[@nicelymade]

Hazard Hound just look at how many people rely on internet for jobs, governments, businesses, etc. it would cause mass chaos

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

Catato Blob, some stores actually do make sure that at least some of their employees know how to use a credit-card copier like in the old days, but most places just close until their systems are back up. About 10 years ago, I was in a library during a black-out and they switched to signing out books with paper forms, but a couple of years ago when it happened again, they just stopped signing stuff out. Analog is dying. :-\ 🤷

[@knight.99]

Very informative channel and interesting too

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@thedarkknight1971]

What about a huge sunspot flare-up? Trying satellites and a lot of electronics... Sure would bugger up the internet somewhat... 🤔

[@williamseice9767]

alltime conspiracy sent me over

[@FairAussie1]

I imagine a SouthPark style world where there are big encampments where everyone gets like 1 minute of internet

[@susannebaum219]

That sounds more to me like "what if the internet went, and people did absolutley nothing to work around it and paniced like in a simpsons episode"

[@horcruxsoul2813]

Could you ping the site to receive the IP or would it not return an IP?

[@Philfluffer]

The internet was constructed this way in order to provide redundancy in the event that there was atomic war.

[@WeatherWX]

Y'all forgot to add BGP Route Leaks to list, which took out this morning's "internet" for a few chunks of the world.

[@hariranormal5584]

mmm somewhat network based guy I see

[@sethadkins546]

10:03 AND those long strings of numbers (IP addresses) could change if the specified server ever goes down.

[@jimby1391]

Those people who prevent and repairs cables are the real heroes in our world

[@DebunkedOfficial]

True Dat!

[@nowthatsjustducky]

I would try to establish a good old fashioned BBS network locally, with connections to other similar networks through good old FIDONet. I grew up in the final decades before the Internet as we know it existed and could easily revert back to those earlier and more primitive times.

[@arieferdiansyah]

I agree , Internet must be down, as soon as posibble. People be manage reality with real close physical activity, for better future,

[@fernandopotenciano7455]

I don't know what would hapen .I will bring my opinion about this and it possible consecuences: We Still Use Many Technologies from the past ,it is know that many technologies which were more popular last century still in use,one example is magnetic tapes which have experienced a huge developement since its peak in the 50s .Why Still Use Magnetic Tapes , indeed, much of the world’s data is still kept on tape, including data for basic science, such as particle physics and radio astronomy, human heritage and national archives, major motion pictures, banking, insurance, oil exploration, and more.One example is how the black hole picture transported by plane in tapes. Radio communication could bring nations also a way of trasmiting information .Don't forget that 1g 2g wifi(invented in the mid-late 90s) 3g 4g are part of he Evolution and History of Radio Wave Technology whose development started on the XIX century , one example is Treatise on electricity and magnetism published by the physicist Maxwell in 1873 the first who theorized about the existence of Electromagnetic Waves. It is true that the world would bring a step back ,but the public order ,nations would stay alive despite all possible effects of a masive strike against most important goberments due to the existency of emergency protocols and other ways of comunication.

[@katthawthorne1027]

Watching this in January 2022 was interesting o,o

[@josegomez385]

I get the hint, cut all the cables. One just isn't enough

[@nicelymade]

If you’re wondering what the world would be like if the internet went down just refer to the episode of Southpark where that exact thing happened.

[@jackasshomey]

easy answer 1 person wouldn't take down the internet because it would take a group of people to destroy satellites, ground lines, and short to long wave radio transmission, 1 guy couldn't do it all

[@talentlesscommentermdxxvii9419]

3:27 He said billion right, 'cause that is million.

[@alvaroagr]

Just something not considered by the video: internet relies not only on the underwater cables, but also underground. There are a lot of cables underground connecting countries, specially, but not limited to, US-Canada, as well as Europe. Also, the DNS is not a single server, but rather a hierarchical and distributed system, so it's pretty strong, even if some root servers go down.

[@tanostrelok2323]

Another reason to oppose internet monopolies then

[@FlyingExplorer2022]

What If There Was No Internet? There'd be no need to use Dashlane

[@sophiaschier-hanson4163]

Any good system that normally relies on internet access would be designed with layers of built-in redundancy in case of local internet outages, which are very common and thus very necessary to plan for. Then again, I once got stuck on a train for 9 hours straight because snow fell on a computer chip responsible for automatic track switching on a bridge and nobody could figure out an alternate way to get the train onto the correct track...

[@Duck-wc9de]

"imagine beeing an evil genious to cut internet supply" a georgian grandma :

[@X11CHASE]

Is that a sticker/emoji that only people who join this channel can have?

[@Duck-wc9de]

@@X11CHASE no... I was on my computer and its One of the few stikers it allows on KZbin.

[@egg3931]

Me

[@putyograsseson]

short answer: no np

[@Its_zanex]

Thanks man

[@theprogramshow8816]

Cool, peace.

[@HyperionZero]

See this is why we can’t have cities.

[@contessa4490]

Can you do a discussion about whether a one cunning person is enough to takeover the Government and Internet?

[@icfdavehere4008]

No

[@contessa4490]

@@icfdavehere4008 base on my research yes. Indeed one man can take down the internet, governemnt, and even the military.

[@kirkc9643]

The same as what happened before 1990

[@akscrublord]

What about a solar flare or EMPs taking out the internet??

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

Exactly what kind of emergency would be solved by shutting the countries internet off

[@jefflee1189]

rebellion against the government. and america is highly effective at it. barrack obombya shut down all geographic info leaving tellowstone national park when they thought it was going to blow up. think about that for a moment

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

Jeff Lee damn I was hoping you’d say Godzilla attack

[@jefflee1189]

@@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725 GOJIRA!!!

[@justandy333]

My biggest concern is the world of banking. Everything is done online! If the internet just went... Well, no access to your money, no money fullstop, all the records of peoples accounts would be gone, Life savings gone!, Cant buy things with card anymore, just whatever cash you happen to have on you or in a safe place. No longer able to get paid or give out wages. With this simple ability to send and recieve money now gone, I could see a very quick descent into anarchy.

[@applejacks971]

Wait til your government goes with digital currency...you'll have the same thing. 'They' will literally dictate what you can buy, when, how much of it, and how often.

[@snmnmidld6203]

​@applejacks971 you're so full of shit your eyes are probably brown, will never happen, if it did you won't be alive to see it happen

[@mat5267]

@@snmnmidld6203they already have in China and the UK are wanting to roll it out.

[@kael-calagher]

Is there a community somewhere where I can live without internet?? Not Amish because I can't move to America 😂

[@annabethwivell327]

Move to central Africa. The government of Chad cut off internet for much of the country for ten full weeks in 2020, and we all survived it alright. It was annoying not being able to connect to email or social media, but otherwise our lives weren’t much disrupted.

[@nexor7809]

@@annabethwivell327 i didnt even know africa had internet to begin with until recently

[@snmnmidld6203]

​@@nexor7809Kenya has better internet than Australia lmao

[@kabirgupta2029]

Yay another video

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@btd6benjamina467]

14:56 I used the internet to destroy the internet

[@marksmoore]

I thought that a large solar coronal mass ejection like the Carrington event in 1859 would fry every circuit board on the planet?

[@Sapphirelily]

I have Dashlane!! 😃 good app!!

[@hedone13x]

13:37 is that Robin of what his name? Alltime conspiracies guy? I remember they sold their channel right? Haven’t seen him since. Like 2-3 years ago right?

[@flaminup]

Or you can write all the ip addressees of the websites you use in a paper and you dont need a dns server. Also I think your computer already memorizes the ip address if you use the site a lot, so no dns needed there either.

[@MrXemrox]

Maybe these structures should have a back up system, a non internet based backup.

[@seraphina985]

Cool when you have a working design for a teleporter that can get messages to the other side of the world via some kind of magic that doesn't need infrastructure in between you can present your solution to that.

[@shuttlethefox6042]

To take down the internet, you'd need one chad of a botnet.

[@HDTomo]

Egypt has a history of internet closing I see

[@splo1nger909]

Whats this internet he talks of, the electric typewriter tv combination?

[@DebunkedOfficial]

You may need to watch it in 144p if that is what you're using ;-)

[@ericvulgate]

its a series of tubes!

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Quite similar...

[@john-or9cf]

splo1nger Nope, teletypes and 300 baud modems

[@eux8255]

If your country takes down internet then just take screenshot before the shutdown

[@tammieknuth6020]

Always see that in my eye(s)

[@ashleycurzon6348]

you should have mentioned about solar flares, one of those suckers could wipe everything internet related out permanently if it was aimed at the earth

[@bburden86]

Thank God you can download spotify playlists.

[@Aaronschannels]

I prey that the internet gets destroyed one day

[@DJPastaYaY]

Noooooo

[@johnracicot706]

What about a solar flare?

[@K_ingh16]

Mmm, global BBQ

[@sciencesid]

Don't forget that the hacker could, in theory, just send a command into each major internet device (routers, ISPs, DNS servers, servers, satellites, etc.) to terminate its hardware and share the virus to any connected device before destroying its hardware (Since almost every device is connected somehow, so it would spread quickly), right?

[@Burning_Dwarf]

04:24 Yea, having internet or not, did not make a difference there, mate We managed to do that just fine with the internet still functioning

[@aps69]

12:02 only 48 hours? People would be dead already

[@daytimecloudsurfer]

Do the lies of Trotsky next

[@tammieknuth6020]

Play pixel game while parallel still handing out karmanic judgement. Just a different form

[@qlaped7284]

The three men cutting the cable: why isn't my phone working

[@DebunkedOfficial]

Not sure they thought it through properly 😆

[@sethadkins546]

7:05 Wouldn't TTL become an issue here?

[@sammysickoorigins]

Another reason why monopolies, mass acquisitions and mergers are extremely destructive.

[@IBaitman]

Ahem... The first thing we do before sleeping and after waking up is close and open our eyes.

[@marcpabel4768]

An EMP comming from the nuclear Explosion of a massive bomb and the attack of aal telecomunicationbases couled do as well. Esspeccially in combination with massive smoke bombs to cut off the sattelites.

[@DebunkedOfficial]

True, but if the EMP was that big then so would the nuke and the internet would be the least of our concern. Thanks for watching!

[@marcpabel4768]

@@DebunkedOfficial Then take many smaaler nuc's and place them perfectly. I althoe do not know if it is possible to stop the outcome of radioactive-radiation and the size of the explosion while having the neccecery EMP to take down the Internet with one till tree nuc's. We have enough nuc's for that but I do not think we have enough to vaporize the erth. At least that is what I understood.

[@marcpabel4768]

@@DebunkedOfficial Ofcourse it might work as well if a verry verry verry powerfull nuce explodes in space up clothe to erth.

[@NoobOfShame]

@@marcpabel4768 actually I don't believe it would completely cripple the internet. It would cause widespread chaos, no doubt, but cables that are many meters under water are shielded from radiation. Especially if a nuke was detonated above earth, a large portion of the radiation would be spread out and unlikely to even reach those cables underwater. The earth being "vaporized" is kind of irrelevant as, of course, nothing can possibly survive that.

[@lukeeichel3820]

Wait if the hackers take the internet down they wouldn’t have internet

[@incikjaykee1569]

to prevent skynet... we need do this

[@alvegutt42]

dWeb and decntralized web browsers would make it impossible to take out, as long as cables are intact and there is still power supply

[@thomasuwu2052]

We can live without the internet, but they can build new technology that we will have in the future.

[@deathpick2]

reminds me of the The Aquinas Protocol from deus ex and the new dark age ending