Comments being used as measure of 'public sentiment' is one of the ways perception is being manipulated by big tech in the first place.

In the archived version (linked elsewhere) there is a sea of negative comments within ~55 minutes of the article being posted, I seriously doubt a large percentage of them are legitimate (all of them doing the same routine, telling the exact same lines and stories).

The comments on the FT are rarely worth reading even though you need to be a subscriber to comment.