In the 90s and early 2000s you had to search for the nieche content as well or know where it was located. Hundrets of different phpBBs or other forums hidden from "uninitated" people.
The simplicity of central platform just has all the users going there, because they don't want to search for hours to find communities to participate in.
infowars is still available at infowars.com, they just can't use the platform and distribution effects of fb, twitter, spotify, etc anymore, so they are precisely back in 1999.
The majority of people only access these distribution platforms.
The "they still have a website" argument equals to "in a dictatorship, you still have a home and you can say anything between its walls, people can come to you and listen". The internet is / should be much more than that.
I always found "disapproval by removal/banning" to be absurd. The true way of them not gaining ground is by educating people. Yes, it's a much, much harder way. Yet it's infinitely more fair, and probably the only way to a healthy society.
You never lived in a dictatorship, do you? If people comes to your home and you say something against the "system", they will come and take you, the people who were listening to you and probably your family too. And you are probably not coming back.
I really wondering, how would you educate somebody who is shouting and threatening other people. Also, can you imagine how you would feel, if your child was killed in a school shooting and then somebody is telling everybody, that you are lying?
If you want to educate this idiot, go ahead, and before you try to do it, stop him from hurting people, who are already having the worst time of their life...
There are many forms of dictatorships. The stalinist police state you allude to is just one, very outdated variant. It was easy to hate it, and thus it didn't live long. Far more dangerous forms are emerging now.
It's not just him you should educate. It's more about the people who listen to him.
As for shouting lies: is it a better alternative to silence that man because you are right? On one hand, argue back, and accept that he has a voice even if it hurts you, on the other, it's the task of all the people standing around to dismiss and ignore and that guy.
The simplicity of central platform just has all the users going there, because they don't want to search for hours to find communities to participate in.
infowars is still available at infowars.com, they just can't use the platform and distribution effects of fb, twitter, spotify, etc anymore, so they are precisely back in 1999.