No, internet has really no effect at all, people are just showing what they really think and what they are like.
That's the problem with the "touch grass, talk to people


," shit, you don't know anything about a stranger on a simple look unless they make their opinions obvious (aka, blue hair/nose ring combo, Klan hood, etc.), most people just see strangers living their lives and automatically assume they are just like them in their values and whatever, which gives them a skewed idea of what the world and people are like, but internet is where you see what people are really like.
For example, in the US there's recently been a trend among online commentators where they say that racism didn't really exist in the 90s and everyone got along much better and that the internet and social media and whatever ruined that, meanwhile, in the 90s half of their country was still against interracial marriage whereas now it♥9s a fringe position there


.
People don't really express themselves in public, not many people want to deal with the potential consequences if the wrong person heard their edgier opinions, and when people see someone who looks at least somewhat sympathetic and said person doesn't openly proclaim that they are racist or whatever, they usually assume that said person would probably agree with them politically and that they would get along, which is a very flawed view of the world. The internet, meanwhile, is nothing but people expressing themselves and shows you the truth.