I would have to assume OP is referencing the plethora of pre-COVID19 pieces relating to the issues of enabling disinformation spread and privacy.
Now one could argue that yes, Google and Facebook did profit financially from "fake news" during the last election because they make money from "attention", and did nothing to stop websites relaying misinformation because they were displaying Google ads or misinformation relayed on Facebook pages. Was there a "conflict of interest"? Always.