The Priceonomics post didn't really say much more than the Atlantic article, I don't think it discussed synthetic diamonds or the internet or anything.

Cubic zirconia looks identical to diamonds but it's not chemically the same so people always considered it fake. Synthetic diamonds are chemically identical so De Beers need to invest millions in figuring out ways to distinguish them. Natural diamonds don't add anything more, but the whole purpose of them is that they're expensive.

Cubic zirconia is significantly different from diamond in hardness, optical dispersion, and density. Moissanite is a much closer match, but is more expensive to manufacture.

And HN comments from five years ago on that The Atlantic article:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4535611

Why was De Beers called “The Syndicate” in Israel? Was that where they had their supervillain lair or something? Almost all of the other names are trying too hard to be inconspicuous, and then they go with “The Syndicate”?

syn·di·cate noun noun: syndicate; plural noun: syndicates ˈsindikət/

    1.    a group of individuals or organizations combined to promote some common interest.

Of course the literal meaning of it isn't bad, but the connotation is pretty negative. Although perhaps it isn't there, it could just be the English translation that "sounds" that way.

Yeah, it's been used for "crime syndicate" for a while.

But we call them organized crime. So shouldn't calling something an organized <blank> be negative as well?

My goal for my Syndicate is like the old video game. Good times!