[forapurpose]

> the internet's future is unfortunately going to be something like this

It's not the future; it's been going on for a long time. The Chinese and Russian governments have long run large astroturfing propaganda operations, astroturfing by U.S. businesses (and I assume those in other countries) is an old story, and the last U.S. presidential election was swamped by social media propaganda operations, foreign and domestic.