PR happened. The big players have figured out that if they want to keep misbehaving to make money, they needed people to not fight them. To do so, one amazing tool is to make sure the entire way to speak about the topic is controlled by them.
Internet gave us the ability to share more, and we though it would allow us to defend our self better, to make people more aware. But we didn't predict that an entire industry would specialize into creating submarine communication that pretend to be an organic one of such quality that the average human can't tell the difference.
With old school com and ads, you at least knew somebody was trying to sell you crap. Now, you are nicely having a chat in what you think is a community of peers, while being exposed to commercial and political influence that have been crafted to reach you here without raising your BS radar.
And with AI, it's going to get worse.