>There is a ton of manipulation on all social media now.

I mean there has been a lot of manipulation on social media for a long, long time its just that it is so wide spread and so obvious now it's not deniable by anyone. Way back off in the early days of Slashdot, long before the sale to Dice, there were topics that were astroturfed and vote manipulated to ensure a consistent message (probably by some nation state, but who knows for sure). Anyone watching back then realized the internet was already going to turn into a cesspit when it came to user contributions. The tech companies turing was always going to happen, there is just too much money involved in rage engagement of users. Baring the over expenditure on twitter, social sites like facebook are still printing money.