I think the main reason people were even able to get away with "racist" content online by then was simply because the era of actual racism was far in the rear-view mirror, and western society had since moved on to the "live and let live" approach that leftism, Tumblr, and ultimately George Floyd's death would completely ruin.
Not exactly. The internet was way less common which did help in it being way less regulated compared to today, but I think the edginess of the '00s and early '10s is more so defined by the Bush era political zeitgeist, when 9/11 and US deployment into the middle east were still fresh in peoples memory and they wanted blood. I guess folks were way less racist against the blacks, because all of that energy was diverted towards the Muslims? But it was still not a time of turning the other cheek, and that's reflected in online entertainment.
I think this can be best encapsulated by those rail shooter flash games where you'd play as Bush, Queen Elizabeth, Obama or some other public political figure where you'd mow down an army of terrorists. I recall playing them as a kid, common even on child-friendly flash sites like miniclip, having no idea what they were about, but the equation of pro-war political figure as some sort of rambo character, that will personally execute hundreds of people, including civilian bystanders, in the name of stopping terrorism is a bit... yeah, I can see why those aren't made today. And that's the more TAME shit people used to get away it, making videos of people calling emos fags innocent in comparison.
What truly deserves the "censored eleven" status in my opinion are those shock reaction videos to stuff like "Boku no Pico", when it was trendy for youtubers as huge as Pewdiepie to watch drawn child pornography "for the memes". It's surreal to think about how prevalent it was within the normie internet, as it is an extremely poorly aged entertainment, from a time when people were still clueless about Epstein island, Diddy parties, anything surrounding Bill Cosby and numerous other scandals of celebrity figures abusing their power and status. What makes Jallebro's spongebob videos age poorly, is not having the intro title be "niggers" (I mean for Christ's sakes, all the black people reacting to the video ended up loving it), it is specific jokes like Mr. Krabs molesting children with an elephant tronk off-screen, while you can only hear their screams. That's the type of joke I can imagine even 14 year old Trump loving soyteens would feel slightly uncomfortable about, and those kids think that crudely made caricatures of pajeets shitting themselves is the most hilarious thing in the world.
