Yup. Almost every bit of 'trickery' people and companies use to promote themself or their works has been a thing since the days of internet forums and mailing l

Yup. Almost every bit of 'trickery' people and companies use to promote themself or their works has been a thing since the days of internet forums and mailing lists. Whether that be sockpuppet accounts, fake reviews, fudging the stats counters or anything else. The only reason it's seen as some 'new' thing is because many journalists seemingly didn't use the internet that much prior to the days of social media, and like many people online seem to think a lot of patterns are newer than they really are.