[caseysoftware]

> If you're worried about them _becoming_ officials, then act now.

If you mean this figuratively, we already have many situations - going back at least to the Arab Spring - of government officials directing policy on social media sites. Secretary Clinton of the Obama Administration spoke about this many times.

If you mean this literally, check out how may high level policy types from social media companies came from and have returned to high ranking spokesman+policy roles in Biden Administration.

But fundamentally, it doesn't require being an official. Even filtering and shaping search results has an impact.. and this has been measured repeatedly. Here's a study from five years ago (aka pre-Trump) which demonstrated it:

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-...