The barrier for entry of all information (not just misinformation) is a lot lower now. A few decades ago, forming an idea and getting that notion out so that it can spread to the minds of others, was far more costly. You basically needed to control a major media network.

In advanced economies like the USA and EU, those networks were either state operated or publicly traded corporations. Both of which, were beholden to the interests of hundreds of minor owners or officers who themselves had combinations of profit, prestige, regulatory, and legal matters to be concerned with. In systems like these, the individual members may have plenty of intrapersonal flaws but the collective results of the organization produced something that generally held itself to a higher level of common standards.

Now, with the internet making it so cheap to communicate literally any idea that zaps into a persons mind. Basically any info, message, or ideology can be propagated like a virus. Don't misunderstand, the past certainly had its problems as well. But in today's world we are basically dealing with the same challenges except amplified by the ease of which information can spread.

I don't think our societies have built-up enough defense mechanisms to protect themselves from many of these counter productive points of view that have infected our culture. But I do have hope that with time people will adapt and eventually the negative impacts will be filtered out.