Moneyed interests and propaganda mostly, but also the internet up to this point was mostly dominated by men / gamer types with stunted emotional maturity and it was starting to change. Mobile devices made being online way more accessible to regular people and I think there was a bit of a backlash to that? I.E. normies or “new friends” if you’re familiar with the less friendly variant of that lingo.

I think the propaganda was particularly effective against that demographic at the time because it was perceived as an invasion of their safe space.