A report published by the
New York Times and ProPublica on Saturday employed “leaked documents” from the Chinese government to reveal a massive Communist Party propaganda and censorship operation to control the political narrative of the coronavirus pandemic – beginning before Beijing even publicly acknowledged the virus.
“At a time when digital media is deepening social divides in Western democracies, China is manipulating online discourse to enforce the Communist Party’s consensus. To stage-manage what appeared on the Chinese internet early this year, the authorities issued strict commands on the content and tone of news coverage, directed paid trolls to inundate social media with party-line blather and deployed security forces to muzzle unsanctioned voices,” ProPublica wrote on Saturday.