Thread by @NBCNews

By the numbers, there is no bigger advocate of President Trump on Facebook than The Epoch Times. But despite its growing reach, little is publicly known about the precise ownership, origins or influences of the nonprofit news outlet. nbcnews.to/2Ze7v99 (1/8)

The Epoch Times has spent more than $1.5 million on pro-Trump advertisements in the last 6 months — more than any organization outside of the Trump campaign.

High engagement has made it a Trump family favorite and a key component of the president's re-election campaign. (2/8)

At the same time, its network of news sites and YouTube channels has made it a powerful conduit for conspiracy theories, including anti-vaccination propaganda and QAnon, to reach the main stream. nbcnews.to/2Ze7v99 (3/8)

The media outlet’s ownership and operation is closely tied to Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual community with the slated goal of taking down China’s government. (4/8)

Former practitioners of Falun Gong told @NBCNews that believers think the world is headed toward a judgment day, where those labeled “communists” will be sent to a kind of hell.

Trump is viewed as a key ally in the anti-communist fight, former Epoch Times employees said. (5/8)

The Epoch Times assembled a team of 7 young reporters otherwise unconnected to Falun Gong by 2016.

Things seemed "strange" even from the first day, according to 5 former reporters who spoke to @NBCNews. nbcnews.to/2Ze7v99 (6/8)

“It’s like we were supposed to be fighting so-called liberal propaganda by making our own,” said Steve Klett, who covered the Trump campaign for The Epoch Times as his first job in journalism. He said his articles were edited to remove outside criticism of Trump. (7/8)

“The worst was the Pulse shooting,” Klett said. “We weren’t allowed to cover stories involving homosexuality, but that bumps up against them wanting to cover Islamic terrorism. So I wrote four articles without using the word gay.” nbcnews.to/2Ze7v99 (8/8) #NBCNewsThreads