While deeply disturbing, the growth of hate and extremism on the Internet simply mirrors the expansion of Internet use. What began as a small computer network used primarily by scientists and academic researchers has become a mass medium. Over 147 million people worldwide now use the Internet,³ 79 million of whom are in the United States.⁴

Computers and Internet access are in workplaces, homes, schools and libraries, and prices for both are falling rapidly. Consumers can now easily purchase home computers for less than $800, and computer users can purchase unlimited access to the Internet for $20 a month or less.

For many Internet users in the United States, going online costs nothing. Large numbers of U.S. workers have free access to the Internet at their offices. Many U.S. residents use free Internet access at their local public libraries, and educational institutions regularly connect their students to the Web free of charge.

Most Internet Service Providers willingly "host" their customers' World Wide Web pages; in return for a user's access fee, they provide nearly unlimited use of the hardware and communications lines necessary for creating a site on the Web. Some Web-based services, such as Tripod and GeoCities, host Internet users' pages free of charge. All of the above provide free, easy-to-use Web development tools, making it simple, even

While deeply disturbing, the growth of hate and extremism on the Internet simply mirrors the expansion of Internet use.

for those who know nothing about computer programming, to create their own Web pages.

Beyond low cost and availability, the Internet provides a new type of information distribution, since time and distance are compressed. Information posted there is available instantaneously, 24 hours a day, from anywhere on the planet. The World Wide Web creates the illusion that all information is present in the user's computer at the instant it is needed. Accessing information has never been easier.

What's more, the Internet has done more than that, for it has turned every user into a potential publisher. It has never been easier for any individual to broadcast his or her ideas to the world. As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote:

...any person with a phone line can become a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox. Through the use of Web pages, mail exploders, and newsgroups, the same individual can become a pamphleteer. As the District Court found, "the content of the Internet is as diverse as human thought."⁵

A worldwide collection of computers linked by high-speed phone lines, the Internet displays remarkable versatility, sometimes resembling a letter, on other occasions a telephone, and still other times a television. Like a printed letter, the Internet provides a way to communicate directly with others, near or far, but on the Internet, "E-mail" (electronic mail) is delivered nearly instantaneously (E-mail arrives so much more quickly than standard printed correspondence that users of the Internet sometimes call traditional letters "snail mail"). Furthermore, E-mail users pay nothing for the transmission of messages; their accounts are charged a flat fee for service, if they pay for their accounts at all.

Like a telephone, the Internet provides a way to communicate in "real time" with others. A person using a chat room or Internet Relay Chat channel to converse with friends can engage in a fast-paced conversation, for friends' words appear on the screen mere seconds after they've been typed.

Like television, the Internet can "broadcast" information to vast audiences. Millions of Internet users can view the same World Wide Web site simultaneously, and Web sites, like television programs, are able to transmit text, sound, photos, and moving images. "The benefit is that we reach tens of thousands of people, potentially millions," Don Black said of the Web soon after founding Stormfront.⁶ "It's almost like having a TV network."

The growth of the Internet represents a revolution in communication as significant as that begun by the development of the printing press in the 15th century. Yet the time needed for its impact to be felt has been drastically telescoped. What took centuries is now taking place in a matter of a few years.