For a couple of reasons: - Because these centralized walled gardens were DOA; people just didn't realized it yet. Personally, I never saw any of the currently

For a couple of reasons: - Because these centralized walled gardens were DOA; people just didn't realized it yet. Personally, I never saw any of the currently popular social network platforms as offering anything significant over the AOL of yesteryear. - Now that its been shown Facebook and Google actively monitor and restrict content that doesn't align with their narratives, folks are becoming wary of centralization.