I think that's besides the point. The social media boom (FB, Twitter, Insta, TikTok) was a point of no return for the internet, stepping out of its "only nerds spend time on it" reputation. Nowadays, everybody and their grandma can be taken for a ride by bad players on the internet, because (imho) let's face it, most people are like deer in the headlights, they just can't tell bad stuff from good on the internet.

The internet becoming such a phenomenon with the "unbathed masses" put it on the radar of the regulators much more than in the 2010s, and of course the 90s when only nerds were on it (myself included).

It's like new designer drugs. When only few people know of them and use them, they remain legal until they become popular and people die from overdoses.