Isn't the existence of large enough centrally controlled networks for this exploitation to become possible pretty much inseparable from it becoming a public top

Isn't the existence of large enough centrally controlled networks for this exploitation to become possible pretty much inseparable from it becoming a public topic that gets addressed by governements and discussed by the wider public? I don't think facebook served as a catalyst for the public to start caring about something that was going on in the same / an equally problematic form pre-facebook.