How would you say this differs from the communist-era stuff that the USA went through? I suppose the new wave of social media isn't (?) as existential to USA se

How would you say this differs from the communist-era stuff that the USA went through? I suppose the new wave of social media isn't (?) as existential to USA security, but the fear tactics and other-ing mechanisms seem quite similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism