The 'disinformation' panic prompted by Trump and COVID feels like part of this. You can see people bouncing off it in various ways and there are social and professional costs to being seen as spreading said disinformation.
It's not the totalitarian solution Stan assumed - top down to an extent, but, once set in motion, self-reinforcing via the public - but it seems reasonably effective as a deterrent.
That being said, there've always been incentives to control information and the opinions of the masses, so I dunno how new or unique any of this is beyond the speed and scale of modern communications.