From the article: "... the installation of a special font called Palida Narrow, and the purpose of this action is still unknown."

Would this perhaps be a tracking ability, as described at https://panopticlick.eff.org (specifically, the list of "System Fonts")

It would require the users to visit a site that is collecting this tracking information, but it isn't impossible to imagine a popular site among the target audience being strong-armed by a nation-state into installing something to do this.

The tracking is practically invisible to end users.