I don't know if anyone here remembers Cass Sunstein and his Cognitive Infiltration program.
Sunstein was Obama’s appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

From this Article:

Sunstein suggests that people who believe in conspiracy theories have a limited number of sources of information that they go to and trust. Therefore, Sunstein argued in the article, it would not work to simply refute the conspiracy theories in public — the very sources that conspiracy theorists believe would have to be infiltrated. An admired and trusted “spokesman” or leader would need to be created or compromised.

His paper, which focuses largely on the 9/11 conspiracy theories, suggests that the government “enlist nongovernmental officials in the effort to rebut the theories. It might ensure that credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that government cannot be seen to control the independent experts.”