“A central feature of PAPERWALL, observed across the network of websites, is the ephemeral nature of its most aggressive components, whereby articles attacking Beijing’s critics are routinely removed from these websites some time after they are published.”
At least 123 fake local news sites in 30 countries, traced to a Shenzhen PR firm called Haimai. The propaganda hides inside a flood of commercial press releases from Times Newswire, so the sites look like boring content farms. The attack pieces get deleted after they run, which leaves little trail for anyone checking later. Beijing doesn’t need a ministry for this anymore. It just hires a PR shop.