The following article acknowledged that propaganda, supported by fake news, has always existed, but clearly not the scale it does today. The other difference is non-state actors can compete on equal footing with state actors (perhaps superior footing than most democracies due to their limitations to compete imposed by the law).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ins-grew-2016/

But this gate of information exchange was unlocked around 2007, with the beginnings of the social media revolution. The creation of social networks like Facebook and Twitter allowed people to exchange information on a much greater scale than ever before, while publishing platforms like WordPress allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease. In short, the above barriers to creating fake news were undone:

1. Distribution and cost: The costs of publishing (via WordPress) and distributing (via social networks) approached zero.

2. Audiences and trust: Given these much lower costs, reputations are far more expendable.

3. Law and regulation: With much lower costs, far more operators were involved in exchanging information. The trickle of regulated (at least by law) information exchange through the gate became a tidal wave - and one that is impossible to regulate in full.