Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine are perhaps one of the most important and most useful tools available on the Internet. You can find almost any article (and all its revisions) on this site, unless the publisher specifically asked for something to be removed. Now Internet Archive has created the “Wayforward Machine,” which travels forward in time to a deeply dystopian and apocalyptic 2046. Their Twitter account is “tweeting from the future,” and you can check out what any site — including Post Apocalyptic Media — looks like in this dark future where Internet freedom is now wholly controlled by corporations with disturbing ulterior motives.
There's something deeply dystopian about this #WayForwardMachine. Click To TweetTheir Twitter Account Is Tweeting from a Dystopian 2046
InternetArchive2046 is the name of the Twitter account sharing news from the future that is mysteriously traveling back to our present-day timeline. In their universe, copyright and truth regulations took the Internet Archive offline in the United States. The Wayback Machine has been gone since 2025 after Section 230 was repealed. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation explains what Section 230 is here. Section 230 notes that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” In other words, sites and other sources that host speech can’t be held legally responsible for what’s said there.)
To any freedom of information allies out there – this is our status. #IA2046 pic.twitter.com/k2DKhutVUo
— InternetArchive2046 (@IA2046) September 30, 2021
The account shares that it’s racing against time to transfer their remaining data to a decentralized web before their servers are destroyed.
We will not give up. We are racing transfer all our remaining data to the decentralized web before our public servers are destroyed. We're going to make the Internet Archive fully public again after all these years. Can anyone help? #IA2046 pic.twitter.com/4JgCIdJ8x2
— InternetArchive2046 (@IA2046) September 30, 2021
Here’s What PostApocalyptic.com Looks Like in 2046
We visited both PostApocalyptic.com and PostApocalypticMedia.com to see what the sites would look like, using the WayForward machine.
In 2046, PostApocalyptic is for sale and blocked from visitors:
For PostApocalypticMedia.com, it’s even MORE sinister. In 2046, the site is restricted and a million pop-ups appear when you try to access it, demanding your information or stating that the content is now unavailable.
You can see a much more limited version of the site in the background, while a warning message informs you that “This business no longer exists” because it was found to be in breach of new regulation brought in 2029 via the “monopolies commission.”
If you close out that pop-up, you get a new one from the Ministry of Truth warning that the site is unavailable “for your own good” with a note that “This site contains information that is currently classified as Thought Crime in your region. If you are the owner of this site, please contact your local Ministry of Truth at your earliest convenience.”
One of the ads asks you to access the site for just $29.
Another ads reads: “The content owner has made this content unavailable in your political block. The copyright on this material has been extended for an additional 200 years.”
Here’s another look at our website in 2046. Here the user is asked to verify their ID in three ways, including by providing a drivers license.
The WayForwardMachine is a fun (but disturbing) way to peer into the future, with a warning about what might happen with too many regulations and a centralized Internet. For PostApocalyptic.com, it looks like our websites would be among the first targeted by the monpolies commission in 2046.
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