Yes. I'm suggesting that far fewer of them had access to the potential to be heard. Every nut job and his brother now has a blog, website, YouTube channel, etc.
> The internet has given individuals a wider platform,
Yes. What I said above. A much wider platform. Instead of an obscure book hidden away on a bookshelf, these guys have a potential audience of the much of the globe. With cheap mobile that reach even extends to very poor countries with little access to education or even books.
> but it hasn't changed the amount of individuals (ie, audience size) willing to consume this stuff...
I'm not convinced that's true and to be convinced I'd have to see some actual numbers. There are LOADS of people these days willing to participate in confirmation bias and the internet makes that far easier. The very few conspiracy theorists I knew 30 years ago had to work hard at their research and I kind of respected the dedication. These days if you want to believe in chem trails it's just a simple search term, click, and copypasta away. We've automated the production of conspiracy theorists.
> We can't ban our way out of this problem.
We aren't. Alex Jones still has a website with 10 million monthly visitors. He has a radio show and publishes books. I'm assuming that if Facebook, YouTube, or even I wanted to publish something on Alex Jones' website, he would "censor" us.
I'm not even suggesting that we should try to "solve" the problem of conspiracy theorists. I'm suggesting that companies should have the right to free speech. If YouTube doesn't want to host the garbage ideas of Alex Jones, they should go right ahead and ban him. If Alex Jones' doesn't want to host Facebook's content or my content on his website, he should feel free to ban us. Where is the actual problem?
Are you suggesting guys like him weren't famous, wealthy, and had popular speaking tours across the country? If so, you're sadly mistaken about the reach of even wrong ideas.
Quackery and supernatural stuff was extremely popular among the middle class America in the 1800s and well into the 1970s. The internet has given individuals a wider platform, but it hasn't changed the amount of individuals (ie, audience size) willing to consume this stuff...
We can't ban our way out of this problem. The risks/costs of doing so (false positives of anyone pushing what is considered 'fringe' at the moment) is far too high to go down this path. And if anything it increases the audience of these people who become martyrs and victims of the very 'conspiracies' they are pushing. It's far better to ignore them or fight them than to ban them.