People definitely got banned back then. There were three key differences:
1. Getting banned from Twitter means leaving a global namespace. Getting banned from the comments on someone’s blog was far less serious, and if someone on a group blog had a falling out it just meant that they setup another one (the Mastodon model). Earlier things like Usenet groups had moderation but people could easily move to another group.
2. The stakes were lower: the early internet was full of academics, professionals, etc. and still had this aura of not really mattering. That doesn’t mean that everyone was nice but the ratio was a lot better and it wasn’t anywhere near as coordinated – the creationists and Scientologists were both annoying but they certainly didn’t work together. The odds of some online flap even reaching the awareness of your friends, family, or coworkers were low and it probably would have seemed more like an amusing joke than something serious.
3. An American specialization of the previous point: the hardcore right-wing took over the Republican Party, successfully purged the moderates, and started recruiting young reactionaries. 9/11 changed what a lot of people felt was acceptable to say or do – I remember when Glenn Reynolds was a fairly normal-sounding law professor with a blog in that brief span before 9/11 & the war blogs broke him – and over the 2000s they felt fewer checks as their power & numbers grew. Obama getting elected brought a LOT of voices out which many of us had thought had disappeared in our parents’ or grandparents’ generation, and by the mid-2010s they were recruiting young people from anti-feminist communities in places like 4chan and Reddit (before GamerGate but that’s when it really ramped up). Nothing unprecedented in terms of message but the numbers and degree to which they were welcomed into the party and started setting the tone was dramatic. There’s a fair argument that some of those views were not uncommon before but had been more genteelly expressed, but I am reminded of how aggressively GOP leaders shut down David Duke in the 90s.
I mention politics not just because I think that normalized a lot of bad behavior but also because it changed how people responded. “Internet drama” wasn’t taken seriously but when it started having real-world consequences and impacting national politics, a lot of people - even those who self-described as free speech advocates – started reconsidering how best to respond. Volume also enters into the picture: the first time you see something, you might try to engage. By the dozenth time, you’re a lot more inclined to get out the ban hammer.
1. Getting banned from Twitter means leaving a global namespace. Getting banned from the comments on someone’s blog was far less serious, and if someone on a group blog had a falling out it just meant that they setup another one (the Mastodon model). Earlier things like Usenet groups had moderation but people could easily move to another group.
2. The stakes were lower: the early internet was full of academics, professionals, etc. and still had this aura of not really mattering. That doesn’t mean that everyone was nice but the ratio was a lot better and it wasn’t anywhere near as coordinated – the creationists and Scientologists were both annoying but they certainly didn’t work together. The odds of some online flap even reaching the awareness of your friends, family, or coworkers were low and it probably would have seemed more like an amusing joke than something serious.
3. An American specialization of the previous point: the hardcore right-wing took over the Republican Party, successfully purged the moderates, and started recruiting young reactionaries. 9/11 changed what a lot of people felt was acceptable to say or do – I remember when Glenn Reynolds was a fairly normal-sounding law professor with a blog in that brief span before 9/11 & the war blogs broke him – and over the 2000s they felt fewer checks as their power & numbers grew. Obama getting elected brought a LOT of voices out which many of us had thought had disappeared in our parents’ or grandparents’ generation, and by the mid-2010s they were recruiting young people from anti-feminist communities in places like 4chan and Reddit (before GamerGate but that’s when it really ramped up). Nothing unprecedented in terms of message but the numbers and degree to which they were welcomed into the party and started setting the tone was dramatic. There’s a fair argument that some of those views were not uncommon before but had been more genteelly expressed, but I am reminded of how aggressively GOP leaders shut down David Duke in the 90s.
I mention politics not just because I think that normalized a lot of bad behavior but also because it changed how people responded. “Internet drama” wasn’t taken seriously but when it started having real-world consequences and impacting national politics, a lot of people - even those who self-described as free speech advocates – started reconsidering how best to respond. Volume also enters into the picture: the first time you see something, you might try to engage. By the dozenth time, you’re a lot more inclined to get out the ban hammer.