At least in the UK, a lot of these calls were made by the far right.

It's easy to dismiss as hypocritical, but it doesn't mean that they were wrong. Their "solution" to leave rather than fix was simply because they wanted it but in their control. Honestly they are nutters who make stuff up about "bendy bananas" etc, which dilutes the complaint.

The media, owned and controlled by powerful people who benefit from the status quo, just tacked on the term 'far' to remind people not to venture outside the Overton window or think too hard. It's scary and far away. Stay the cosy middle where it's safe. Anyone against the pro-corporate status quo (for example mass immigration) is tainted having an extreme opinion; Discussion over.

There are a few nutters and poor people notice these trends first. The media tend to zoom in on those people and of course that taints all their concerns because normal people don't want to say anything that people might see as poor or nutty; they want to be seen as successful and smart. Only poor people would complain about immigration and only extremists and pedos would complain about censorship and you are not one of them right?

I believe people in tech have been making these calls decades before the far right started making noise for their political ends.

The far right may have *latched on* to these calls, but rest assured they are as eager as anyone to use state power to quash dissidents, if not more so.