But there's been too many reports of bot activity, fake likes, fake followers in those platforms that I'm sure many companies and marketing departments fall for them.
Not everyone does as good job as you Im sure.
Google, as far as I know, was never caught in dark ui patterns or fake number reports to generate revenue. They don't seem to need it.
Autoplay videos with ads?
It's far different from let them click on this by mistake
I feel like YouTube by now is more similar to TV advertising, you take in consideration that people could just have the tv on in the background while doing something else or going around the house. Unless you don't know what you are doing with your advertising budget of course.
Of course I run a malware blocker, I mean ad blocker, so I'm not seeing those ads served by malware networks.
With hindsight advertisers must be aware of fake likes and such too.
Are you serious? Google uses dark patterns all the time.