That is basically how the government, media, and politicians have smeared Twitter since Musk took over, and how they stop up and coming populist opponents from emerging. Instead of directly attacking someone, they'll fund "research" that shows how "hate speech is on the rise" and Person/Group X is benefiting from that "hate speech". Then the research is used by people in charge to say "oh this is very troubling, we can't allow this to continue".

Basically political campaign research and propaganda is becoming a standard part of academia.