I used to work in marketing as a dev and this shit never made sense to me. I didn’t investigate like TFA but I am 0% surprised by the finding. Incentives are all misaligned.

It’s systemic, and whether or not it’s perpetrated directly by big tech, they are the primary beneficiaries i.e. increased ad sales.

This is a problem that requires regulation, which means it will not be addressed meaningfully, as that won’t happen anytime soon.