Why does everyone on news/political posts say "folks" instead of "people" now? Is this some language signalling thing I don't get?

I know it's not a big deal, but it just seems out of place because in every comment where you'll get like boiler plate center-left HR/NPR speak they say "folks" instead of people the last few years. Why is that? I know it's not all southern/rural people so please don't suggest it's about that considering the rest of the vocabulary choices in the comment don't align with that. Is using a more humble term like "poor folks, white folks, black folks, etc" supposed to imply a false familiarity or something? Not a linguist or PR person so don't understand the shift.