The thing is, the areas where that strategy is MOST useful are the areas that'll get you in big trouble. They could well have taken big money, even nation-state

The thing is, the areas where that strategy is MOST useful are the areas that'll get you in big trouble. They could well have taken big money, even nation-state money, for a while there, upended the whole damn planet in service of aiding state actors who're now imploding, and could be scrambling to transition to a less risky strategy. That would be an example of trading on the true power of monopoly, algorithm and YouTube, and then having it turn and bite you. If you're selling influence to bad actors for exorbitant sums, you'd better win, by which I mean THEY had better win. Otherwise you're left holding the bag. If it's that, I'm happy to have them pivot. Because that would be a pretty apocalyptic scenario, even as a nebulous strategy that was never implemented. If it WAS ever implemented, I'm betting it backfired and they're desperate to fall back on more seemingly normal behavior.