Falun Gong uses The Epoch Times to spread its message

 Falun Gong uses The Epoch Times to spread its message.

The Epoch Times was established in 2000 by Falun Gong practitioners to be a Chinese-language newspaper. Its primary goal was to provide uncensored news to Chinese readers, both in and outside the country. Over time, it expanded its languages and coverage, becoming a global media outlet.

For the first 16 years of its existence, The Epoch Times was an obscure alternative news operation within the United States. But that changed when the publication began to throw its support behind Donald Trump’s candidacy for president. Although it presents itself as a news outlet, The Epoch Times spent more money on pro-Trump Facebook advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign.

Their support for Trump and their anticommunist credentials have helped the publication attract billions of views and become a dominant online media source, enabling Falun Gong to better spread its spiritual message—along with disinformation and conspiracy theories—to unsuspecting and gullible audiences.

As Li told staffers at a meeting of The Epoch Times in 2009,

The Epoch Times really has had a major impact in Fa-rectification [spreading the message of Falun Gong]. You have all seen it. The thinking that human beings have is in fact rather simple. Many people believe whatever the media says, and in the majority of cases it is the media that normally serves as a person’s source of information. As such, this informational mechanism is very useful to you in your efforts to save the people of this world and validate the Fa.