The internet has literally never been unregulated.

I'd say it's fairly unregulated. Where else could the silk road, 4chan, or furnitureporn.com exist??

I can put a kilo of cocaine in my trunk and drive on the highway, that does't mean the roads are unregulated.

Very slowly through the postal system.

Didn't regulation create the Internet?

Although if your point is "some regulations are better than others" I definitely agree with you.

Software generally and the internet specifically are relative "wild wests" compared to most industries. Literally anyone can write software or create a website. You don't need any fancy degrees, you don't need a license/certification, and generally speaking you don't really need permission. There's very few things which are "difficult" to do, categories of content which will be difficult to get hosted.

This is slowly getting chipped away though. There's more and more national internet filters, even in relatively free places like UK. There's GDPR, DMCA, SESTA/FOSTA, etc.

Pics or it didn't happen.