TY - JOUR
T1 - Covert political campaigning
T2 - Mapping the scope, scale, and cost of cross-platform election influence operations
AU - Gaw, Fatima
AU - Bunquin, Jon Benedik A.
AU - Lanuza, Jose Mari H.
AU - Cabbuag, Samuel I.
AU - Sapalo, Noreen H.
AU - Yusoph, Al Habbyel
N1 - The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by Internews, a media support non-profit organization, under the Strengthening Disinformation Resilience in the Philippines – Six-Track Engagement Against Disinformation Initiative (STEAD-i), grant number OSC-IN-PH22UOT-159-100. It was supported by the Internews Philippines team, specifically Greg Kehailia, Leanne Lagman, Gian Libot, Kat Raymundo, Bianca Franco, and Kia Obang
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/1/12
Y1 - 2025/1/12
N2 - This study investigates gray areas of contemporary political campaigning from a political economy perspective. Using qualitative field and digital methods, computational methods, and economic modeling, it analyzes the scope, scale, and cost of commissioning social media influencers in the 2022 Philippine Elections across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. The researchers find that there is a high demand for influencers to campaign for candidates, characterized by premium and dynamic incentives under informal and obscure arrangements. We identified 1425 influencer accounts across the four social media platforms that engage in covert political campaigning and categorized them into seven types. The cost of these influencer-led campaigns is estimated to range from USD 27M following a pay-per-post compensation model, to USD 10.9M using a retainer model. This article serves as a model for both election research and election policy by providing a modular framework that addresses knowledge gaps in various country contexts.
AB - This study investigates gray areas of contemporary political campaigning from a political economy perspective. Using qualitative field and digital methods, computational methods, and economic modeling, it analyzes the scope, scale, and cost of commissioning social media influencers in the 2022 Philippine Elections across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. The researchers find that there is a high demand for influencers to campaign for candidates, characterized by premium and dynamic incentives under informal and obscure arrangements. We identified 1425 influencer accounts across the four social media platforms that engage in covert political campaigning and categorized them into seven types. The cost of these influencer-led campaigns is estimated to range from USD 27M following a pay-per-post compensation model, to USD 10.9M using a retainer model. This article serves as a model for both election research and election policy by providing a modular framework that addresses knowledge gaps in various country contexts.
KW - Computational method
KW - cross-platform
KW - disinformation
KW - economic modeling
KW - elections
KW - field research
KW - influence operations
KW - political campaign
KW - political economy
KW - social media influencer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215064740&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448241312191
U2 - 10.1177/14614448241312191
DO - 10.1177/14614448241312191
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85215064740
SN - 1461-4448
JO - New Media and Society
JF - New Media and Society
ER -