I Read it on the Internet

From Reddit detectives tracking down hit-and-run drivers to 4chan users locating stolen property, the internet has occasionally gotten crime-solving right. We're counting down six times online communities actually helped law enforcement close cases—and examining what made these digital investigations succeed where others have failed so spectacularly.

In May 2014, two Wisconsin girls lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times—all to appease a faceless monster they'd discovered on the internet. This is the story of how Slenderman, a creature born from a Photoshop contest on Something Awful forums, escaped the screen and became evidence in a real criminal trial that forced America to confront the power of online mythology.

In July 2014, two vastly different internet subcultures collided in what became known as the 'Tumblr-4chan raids'—a bizarre digital war involving porn bombs, doxing attempts, and a fundamental clash of values. We explore how this conflict revealed the fault lines that would define online culture for years to come, and why both sides claimed victory in a battle with no clear winner.

Before Web 2.0, before mobile optimization, before anyone knew what SEO meant—there were websites built by enthusiasts who just... never looked back. We're counting down seven perfectly preserved relics of the early internet that are still live today, complete with dancing baby animations, guest books, and 'Under Construction' GIFs. These aren't archived—they're still running exactly as they were in 1997.

In 2019, Ina and David Steiner wrote critical articles about eBay on their newsletter site. What happened next sounds like fiction: live spiders and cockroaches delivered to their home, threatening messages, and surveillance by eBay's own security team. This is the story of how corporate intimidation went catastrophically wrong, leading to federal charges and prison sentences for multiple executives.

In 2005, a Nature journal study compared the accuracy of Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica and ignited a fight that would determine the future of human knowledge. We dive into the bitter feud between these two giants—one a 244-year-old institution, the other a scrappy website anyone could edit—and explore how their clash forever changed what we believe when we read it on the internet.

From fake archaeological discoveries to fabricated medical studies, the internet has produced hoaxes so sophisticated they passed peer review and made it into academic citations. We're counting down five instances where the supposed experts fell for online deception just as hard as everyone else—and the messy aftermath when the truth came out.

In 2011, a Brazilian blog post went viral claiming that pop star Avril Lavigne had died and been secretly replaced by a look-alike actress. What started as possible satire became one of the internet's most persistent conspiracy theories, spawning thousands of comparison photos, 'evidence' videos, and true believers across the globe. We're diving deep into how this theory spread, why people believed it, and what it reveals about how we consume information online.

I Read It On The Internet best of episode!

I Read It On The Internet best of episode!