> its just that social media companies have a unique spot in everyones pocket.
You're downplaying this. It's not "just that", it's the whole point. It's hard to make kitchen products more addictive, so it doesn't really matter what the consumer company would like.
Why am I not suprised? Imagine if a law was passed saying every social media website on the planet has to show the location of the user compulsorily. Do you think it would cut down the hatred by propaganda bots and government actors? Meta also displays a huge amount of racism though it is not as bad as X I suppose
...you mean the thing that X is currently doing?
Clicking on "joing in XY" now shows you for most accounts some private data, like where they are operated from :-D
It's not like the app landed in their lap, they actively created it and sought to make it as engaging as possible.
This is what most consumer companies do, its just that social media companies have a unique spot in everyones pocket.