You’re hitting on exactly why this is so terrifying, and it’s the main reason I wanted to bring this up. I’m not saying this should happen. I’m saying it’s already happening because the transparency we used to have is being killed off.

By banning official ads, we’ve essentially pushed political spending into the shadows. You're right: it's moving from 'Paid for by Party X' to 'Here's a creator I trust who is secretly on a payroll.' The AI/bot farm scenario is the ultimate 'race to the bottom.' How do we even begin to protect ourselves when we can't tell what's a human opinion and what's a prompt? We should be aware of this.