"This is a huge thing," Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at UC Berkeley’s School of Information told the outlets. The report credits Chinese President Xi Jinping with launching the operation, called the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), in 2014. The censors also hired internet trolls to post "distracting chatter" on the internet to help influence public opinion as the coronavirus gradually became a bigger news story. The Chinese government also ordered security personnel to silence commentators whose views were not aligned with those of the government, according to the report. The leaked documents suggested a massive deployment of both people and technology – "and, presumably, lots of money" – to control the narrative, the report said.

Source: Fox News December 20, 2020 08:37 UTC