Disinformation and propaganda can be understood as economic activities that work in association with the so-called influence industry. The online disinformation ecosystem depends on the precarious nature of production and regulation in digital communication, since content recommendation and distribution systems on digital platforms not only allow for, but also promote and monetize criminal content of various types, as long as they generate audience and interactions. The lack of effective mechanisms to protect users makes these platforms favorable environments, often offering financial incentives, for scams, fraud and many other types of crimes and manipulation.
Advertising is the basis of the business model for digital platforms, and plays a central role in the marketing strategy of permanent disinformation campaigns, which use microtargeting, repetition and amplification of conspiratorial, denialist and hyper-partisan narratives. Such campaigns can involve coordinated interactions between private sector agents, political actors, and organizations from society and the State. These directly benefit the platforms, as well as mobilizing the precarious market for producing content circulating online.
In this line of research, we seek to bring together systematic evidence on the economic and political relationships that sustain the online disinformation industry. We aim to contribute critical and empirical approaches for responding to the challenges of investigating these new propaganda and manipulation strategies. The projects in this line are dedicated to identifying the campaing's sources of financing and how content on social media and junk news sites is monetized. We also investigate who are the actors and organizations involved, and what are the tactics of programmatic advertising, and expose the commercial manipulation of the socio-technical conditions of the internet in Brazil.