Freedom House emerged to support state-backed content manipulation. Outsourcing in this way provides the government with plausible deniability and makes attribution of influence operations more challenging. It also allows political actors to reach new and more niche audiences by drawing on privatesector innovation and expertise. In the coming years, these networks of progovernment human commentators and related companies will undoubtedly increase their reliance on AI-based tools that can create text, audio, images, and video en masse. The affordability, ease of use, and accessibility of consumerfacing generative AI technology have lowered the barrier of entry to the disinformation market. Those with the financial or political incentives will have the capacity to create false and misleading information with these tools, and then leverage existing networks to distribute it at scale. As a result, the information space will grow more diluted and polluted with fabrications, further damaging the internet’s role as a source of reliable and diverse content. Outsourcing to shadowy firms and influencers State officials have cultivated networks of private actors willing to spread false and misleading content. Rather than taking the political risk or developing the resources to engage in such activity themselves, an electoral campaign, politician, or ministry can simply hire a social media influencer or public relations firm that prioritizes lucrative contracts and political connections over ethical or legal probity. The Russian private sector has played an ongoing role in spreading disinformation about the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. A sprawling and sophisticated operation known as “Doppelgänger” mimicked German, American, Italian, British, and French media outlets to disseminate false and conspiratorial narratives about European sanctions and Ukrainian refugees, among other topics. Doppelgänger has been linked to a loose group of companies and nonprofits with close ties to Russian authorities. Cyber Front Z, another Russian network, relied on Telegram to task commentators with sharing hundreds of posts a day on other platforms that attack critics of President Vladimir Putin and promote antiUkraine propaganda. @freedomhouse An entire market of for-hire services has emerged to support state-backed content manipulation. Israel is home to a growing market of disinformation-forhire companies. A 2023 investigation by Forbidden Stories, the Guardian, and Haaretz uncovered the work of an Israelbased firm known as Team Jorge, which reportedly uses an online platform that can automatically create text based on keywords and then mobilize a network of fake social media accounts to promote it. The firm, for instance, disseminated narratives meant to cast doubt on serious allegations that the former director of Mexico’s criminal investigations unit was involved in torture, kidnapping, and falsifying evidence. Similarly in August 2022, Meta linked the Israelbased company Mind Force to a network of accounts active in Angola. They primarily posted in support of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and against the country’s main opposition party, and a Mind Force employee publicly disclosed that the Angolan government was a client. Political actors have also worked to exploit the loyalty and trust that ostensibly nonpolitical influencers have cultivated among their social media followers. Ahead of Nigeria’s February 2023 election, influencers were paid—with one reportedly receiving up to $45,000—to spread false narratives linking political candidates with militant or separatist groups. During Kenya’s August 2022 election, influencers gamed social media platforms’ trending functions to boost misleading political hashtags. For instance, the hashtag #ChebukatiCannotBeTrusted sought to undermine the country’s independent electoral authority by suggesting that its leader supported one presidential candidate over the others. Similar networks of influencers were found to have coordinated disinformation campaigns against Kenyan journalists, judges, and members of civil society. freedomhouse.org 9