When the Internet Forgets, Does History Disappear?

The Internet has become the dominant repository of human activity and collective memory. Yet, the assumption of its permanence is increasingly challenged by the phenomenon of digital disappearance. This paper examines how the loss of online records affects historical verification, digital epistemology, and the integrity of collective memory. It argues that as artificial intelligence (AI) systems learn from what remains digitally accessible, the erosion of authentic records may distort future understandings of history.