What Is Godwin’s Law?

Godwin's Law is the idea that someone will eventually compare someone else to Hitler or Nazis in an argument on the internet. It was first coined in 1990 by Mike Godwin, who argued that the longer a discussion, the more likely someone would make this comparison. It can be applied to digital spaces like messaging platforms and forums where people discuss new technologies. Godwin's Law is an observation about the nature of online discussion. It asserts that the probability of Hitler or Nazi references grows according to conversation length. Mike Godwin proposed the theory in 1990, which has since been applied to all conversations about technology. For example, on social media platforms such as Reddit or Twitter, it's often easy for users to get into heated arguments about politics and other contentious topics. The Law usually demonstrates how people often resort to name-calling and insults when discussing controversial issues. In other words, it confirms what we already know: people can be jerks on the internet! There's a little "Godwin's law" in all of us. It's that moment when you're conversing and suddenly realize that everything you've been saying references Hitler or Nazis. The name comes from an American lawyer named Mike Godwin, who first stated the "law" in 1990. It originally referred to USENET newsgroup discussions but can now be applied to any chat, forum setup, or collaborative conversation. The earliest recorded instance of this comes from an online forum called alt.folklore.computers, where someone asked if anyone knew how to make the sound of a modem connecting over the phone. Someone responded by saying, "That reminds me of something…" and then talked about how they worked at IBM during World War II. They had to discontinue three hundred German phone lines every morning before work started because Hitler's military officers used them as a communication network between various European bunkers. Also because they feared that someone would try hacking into one of these lines and get them all killed. So it goes: when we talk about things on social media, we tend.