Pretty much this, with the added nuance of them using social capital (which can be engineered, e.g. Twitter following) and good old-fashioned persuasion as a stand in for real competence.
The 'Appeal to Authority' fallacy creates a feedback loop here too. They mislead to gain authority. They use that new authority to gain more opportunities to mislead.
The 'Appeal to Authority' fallacy creates a feedback loop here too. They mislead to gain authority. They use that new authority to gain more opportunities to mislead.