I don't see a conspiracy here, it's more like a bit of frustration of some parts of the press not doing their jobs. Fact checking police numbers is one of them.
Also: Speaking about "then thousands" at a protest gives another vibe than speaking about "hundred thousands" or "a quarter of a million" which is closer to the truth and makes a democratic protest seem smaller than it is.
Now let's put that list on codeberg instead of github.