So much money is on the line for US super scalers that they probably pay for ‘pushes’ on social media. Maybe Chinese companies are doing the same.

I would say that’s more certain than just a “probably“. I would bet that some of the ridiculous fear mongering about language models trying to escape their server, blackmail their developers, or spontaneously participating in a social network are all clandestine marketing campaigns. The technology is certainly amazing and very useful, but I don’t think any of these terminator stories were boosted by the algorithms on their own.