It was covered a bit in the article but I think it needs some additional visibility. Not only did plenty of developers have access to the same data, there were

It was covered a bit in the article but I think it needs some additional visibility. Not only did plenty of developers have access to the same data, there were a number of parallel research projects investigating manipulation of online communities using very similar techniques. It was no secret amongst those in the field and in fact Chris Sumner had been speaking about it for a number of years at DEF CON. His DEF CON 25 presentation seems especially on-point upon reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Hx86H3-mc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Hx86H3-mc