Everyone has mentioned the drive for profit, I just want to give another example that’s more explicit:
Revenue comes from advertising
More ad views/engagement means more revenue
This drives the company to create algorithms to increase engagement. For instance promoting rage bait so you stay on the site longer. This leads to other scummy things like racist or sexual content as well
This drives the original community to fall apart as people are driven away (see enshittification)
Everyone has mentioned the drive for profit, I just want to give another example that’s more explicit: