There was a recent study that was floating around the news showing that this, never happened. The study went on to show that actually conservative viewpoints were boosted by social media algorithms.
What actually was happening was mass hysteria, and a political base being radicalized by a cult like leader who claimed every single thing was "lugen press", and anything bad that happened was an attack on them.
Maybe that content was boosted by algorithms which were trained on engagement. The content was indeed popular, if only because it was contrarian. Contrarian viewpoints flourish if people believe that the press doesn't hold government to account. But that is a different topic. Algorithms vs direct influence.
But there were still propaganda efforts, especially for the topic of mis- or disinformation. It served as an excuse to curb content. Trump decried the press, but at the same time he was correct in that the media tried to smear him with a Russian collusion story and promoted and suppress certain other topics. This isn't about conservative vs democrat, this is just underhanded political play. So the worst part is that he was partially correct about the press being instrumentalized. If they just reported critically and honestly, he would never have had an argument here.
Another bad result from this is that this of course might strain the relationship of a country being accused to meddle in elections. It turned large parts of the domestic populations against an imaginary enemy. Not saying that this is relevant for current developments.
You could maybe excuse the press because they have been fed with false info. Checking sources is their job, but worst of all, is that they now claim that voices need to be censored because of misinformation, just as they spread it themselves. I doubt they mean their own and I can fully understand the lacking trust in large press companies.
The press did not try to smear him with the Russian collusion "story". That story is and was very real. The Mueller investigation lead to dozens of criminal charges, of trump appointees and foreign Russian agents. Whoever convinced you otherwise had a successful propaganda campaign and you are one of millions of victims.
The probe did not find collusion, but that isn't the point.
The fact that he was put under that much scrutiny is political play. We have diverging opinions here, but I believe if there were any serious failings, we certainly would have heard of it. People tried to smear him with some failings of alleged contacts. Everyone even slightly connected could be smeared with allegations like that.
But the fact remains that A: The probe did NOT find collusion and that B: the probe was launched on falsified information that was created to start a political prosecutions. That is in my opinion something far more serious than anything the probe laid open and furthermore should obviously be discouraged.
