I don't think that's the case. If you browse HN somewhat regularly, you'll see that a lot of times when a post makes it to the top (Or close enough) it's very likely that a related post will make the rounds pretty soon.
I think it's more related to people trying to ride the karma wave than "A coordinated takedown of ad tech companies". And it is effective, because it happens way too often.
Hi dang, I'm wondering is there a list of HN phenomena that you've noticed over the years?
Examples would be:
1. follow-up submissions
2. an initial wave of critical comments followed by a wave of apologist comments
3. first page of comments occupied by a single top level comment with lots of descendants (you often post to draw attention to other pages of comments in these cases)
There's no systematic list but I use links to HN Search (like in the GP) to refer to such patterns. There must be a hundred such categories by now. Eventually I may try to compile them into something more standardized.
I agree, I remember reading an article or a comment explaining this phenomenon on HN, with examples.
Nevertheless it would be interesting if the idea of digital ads being ineffective snowballed to the point where it became like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and led to the demise of large companies that we think of as "giants" or "monopolies".
I think it's more related to people trying to ride the karma wave than "A coordinated takedown of ad tech companies". And it is effective, because it happens way too often.