The article is from 2015, and it's tinfoil hat claptrap. Not sure how this made it to the front page.
No doubt nefarious actions are real but internet users have a far greater tendency to project it onto people who simply have a different view than they do. We all need to guard against this.
Endless reams about this at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... if you or anyone want to understand this rule better.
The unaware can laugh all they want but the information war is real and HN is quite popular.