We have investigated and documented a wide industry of consultants, digital campaigns firms and data brokers working with political groups to conduct influence campaigns. Here you can find our research and analysis.

We have worked with journalists, digital rights groups, civil
society organisations and academics to investigate the industry of
consultants, digital campaigns firms and data brokers working with political
groups to conduct influence campaigns.

Companies and the Industry

Thanks to the work of fantastic worldwide partners, we present guides and information for voters in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. In 2022, the Influence Industry Project partnered with organisations around the world to adapt and remix our project materials.

Country Specific Voter Guides

A case study of Berlin Campaign Conference exploring 2024 election trends including the use of TikTok for youth engagement, the role of AI in creating deep-fakes, and the rising interest in political ‘alternatives’.

Digital influence trends: Lessons from the Berlin Campaign Conference 2024

Deze Data Detox Stem Gids beschrijft een paar van de meest populaire methoden die kandidaten gebruiken om je steun te krijgen. Met deze kennis kun je stemmen met de wetenschap van hoe en wanneer deze overtuigingstechnieken op jou worden gebruikt.

Data Detox Kit

Een kiezersgids: Zeven tips om uw gegevens te detoxen

Dieser Data-Detox-Leitfaden für Wähler:innen beschreibt einige der verbreitetsten Methoden, die Kandidat:innen nutzen, um sich deine Unterstützung zu sichern. Wenn du deine Stimme abgibst, solltest du genau wissen, wie und wann diese Überzeugungstechniken bei dir angewendet werden.

Ein Keitfaden Für Wähler:Innen: 7 Tipps für deinen Daten-Detox

In advance of the 2024 municipal elections, we will create space to discuss trends in digital influence tactics being used in Brazil, accountability for tech firms, platforms, and political groups in the context of Brazil, and the motivations of citizens using these tools.

Event: The Digital Influence Industry in Brazilian Election Campaigns 

Em antecipação às eleições municipais de 2024, vamos apresentar e criar um espaço para discutir as tendências nas táticas de influência digital que estão sendo usadas no Brasil, a responsabilidade das empresas e plataformas de tecnologia e grupos políticos no contexto do país e as motivações dos cidadãos que usam essas ferramentas.

Evento: A Indústria da Influência Digital nas Campanhas Eleitorais
Brasileiras

Esse Data Detox Kit do Eleitor descreve alguns dos métodos mais populares que candidatos estão usando para ganhar seu apoio, para que então você possa votar com conhecimento de como e quando essas técnicas de persuasão estão sendo utilizadas com você.

Guia do Eleitor: 7 Dicas Para Desintoxicar Seus Dados

Ésta Guía del Votante Data Detox describe algunos de los métodos más populares que emplean las personas candidatas para ganar tu apoyo, de modo que puedas emitir tu voto con el conocimiento de cómo y cuándo se utilizan estas técnicas de persuasión en vos.

Guía del votante: 7 consejos para depurar tus datos

In this article, TEDIC discusses their policy brief and findings from their research into the influence industry in Paraguay. TEDIC used electoral finance records and social media transparency tools to find evidence of private firms working with political actors in Paraguay with the Influence Industry Project's research methodology serving as their foundation.

by TEDIC

The influence industry in the Paraguayan elections: analysis of actors
and recommendations

In this piece, we highlight OpenMedia’s recent research documenting which private firms, using voter data, have supported political parties in Canada. OpenMedia used primary and secondary sources to identify 91 companies that are working with political candidates across Canada, supporting their ongoing reporting on digital regulatory issues in Canadian politics.

by Tactical Tech and OpenMedia

Mapping the Political Influence Industry in Canada

Mwongozo wa Kifaa cha Kusafisha Taarifa kwa Wapiga Kura unaelezea baadhi ya mbinu mashuhuri zinazotumiwa na wagombea kupata msaada wa kupiga kura, maarifa ya jinsi na wakati gani wa kutumia mbinu za ushawishi.

Mwongozo wa Wapiga Kura: Vidokezo 7 vya Kusafisha Taarifa Zako

In 2022, Giorgia Meloni was elected Prime Minister in the Italian General Elections. A key feature of her campaign and her interactions with the public since has been her use of social media – especially TikTok. This article explores how Meloni’s TikTok tactics shared features with other far-right influencers.

by Fraser Crichton

TikTok Tactics, Far-Right Influence and The Italian Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni

O pesquisador Pedro Maia, utilizando o Influence Industry Explorer como base, discute as conexões entre as plataformas da Meta, as eleições presidenciais brasileiras de 2018 e 2022 e a democracia no Brasil. As narrativas entrelaçadas da democracia brasileira, os distúrbios antidemocráticos e das plataformas da Meta contam uma história cautelar sobre o impacto da era digital na governança democrática e na participação cidadã.

por Pedro Maia

Um conto cautelar: A Democracia Brasileira, distúrbios antidemocráticos
e as plataformas da Meta

Questa Guida per l'elettore Data Detox descrive alcuni dei metodi più diffusi che i candidati utilizzano per ottenere il tuo sostegno, in modo che tu possa esprimere il tuo voto conoscendo e riconoscendo come e quando queste tecniche di persuasione vengono utilizzate su di te.

Una guida per gli elettori: 7 consigli per disintossicarsi dai dati

Data Detox’ "Velgerguide" beskriver noen av de vanligste metodene politiske kandidater og partier bruker for å vinne din stemme. Ved hjelp av den kan du vite noe om når og hvordan de bruker slike overtalingsteknikker overfor deg, før du stemmer.

Velgerguide: Sju tips for en detox av dataene dine

يصف دليل المقترع لتنظيف البيانات بعض الطرق الأكثر رواجًا، والتي يستخدمها المرشّحون لكسب تأييدك، كي تتمكن من الإدلاء بصوتك، وأنت تعرف كيف ومتى تُستَخدم هذه الوسائل الإقناعية للتأثير فيك.

دليل المقترع : ٧ نصائح لتنظيف بياناتك

এই ডেটা ডিটক্স ভোটারস গাইড, প্রার্থীরা আপনার সমর্থন জেতার জন্য সবচেয়ে জনপ্রিয় যে পদ্ধতিগুলির প্রয়োগ করে তার কয়েকটি বর্ণনা করে, যাতে আপনি কীভাবে এবং কখন এই প্ররোচনা কৌশলগুলি আপনার উপর ব্যবহার করা হচ্ছে সে সম্পর্কে জেনে নিয়ে আপনার ভোট দিতে পারেন।

একজন ভ োটোরেে জনয উপরেশ: তথ্য ডিটক্স করার ৭ টট টটপস

From December 2–4, 2024, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project brought together 35 researchers, artists, journalists, community organizers, and communications professionals from 14 countries at Publix House of Journalism in Berlin for the inaugural Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering. Here are the key takeaways.

10 Takeaways from the Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering 2024

Researcher Pedro Maia relates, using the Influence Industry Explorer as a foundation, the role of Meta platforms during the 2018 and 2022 presidential elections in Brazil. The intertwining narratives of Brazilian democracy, anti-democratic riots, and Meta's platforms tell a cautionary tale of the digital age's impact on governance and civic life.

by Pedro Maia

A Cautionary Tale: Brazilian democracy, anti-democratic riots, and
Meta’s platforms

This three-day expert gathering is designed to bring together experienced practitioners in order to assess the strategies, techniques, and tools currently used within climate influence including post-truth narratives, corporate influence, misinformation, AI and machine-learning enhanced content and harassment of climate activists and journalists.

Call for Participants: Digital Influence and Climate Friction: Expert Gathering

The website of the insolvent and (in)famous political data firm, Cambridge Analytica, seemed to return from the grave in 2023, but something was not quite right. Understanding how a well-established website can be compromised, and how to identify when it is, is important for examining the disruption of political influence by private actors. This case study will walk you through reasons why a website might be compromised and provide you with basic steps and tools to investigate and verify what, and who, is behind the interference.

Skills for Investigators

Investigating Compromised Websites: The Legacy of Cambridge Analytica

Activity to help introduce the topic of profiling and how others can create representations of us.

Workshop Activity

Portraits and Data Doubles

Join us for our Investigating the Influence Industry in Elections mastercourse on the 18th — 30th April from 09 to 12 CET. This series of workshops will provide investigation methods, resources and skills for covering upcoming, or recently run elections. The mix of training, discussions, and skill-sharing will be run by Tactical Tech’s The Influence Industry Project and Exposing the Invisible teams.

Call for participants: Investigating the Influence Industry in Elections
Mastercourse

In collaboration with Digispace Africa, A Voter's Guide: 7 Tips to Detox Your Data by the Influence Industry Project and Data Detox Kit was localised for Ghanaian voters as well as translated into both Twi and Ewe.

in partnership with Digispace Africa

Localised Voter's Guide from Ghana

The stand-alone activities are centered on digital and political influence and are available to be integrated into workshops.

The Voter's Guide Activities

The Voter's Guide workshop contains a workshop plan, workshop slides, activities, as well as links to resources. The workshop resources support participants learning about the foundations of digital and political influence.

The Voter's Guide Workshop

In advance of next year's general election in India, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project is excited to publish three case studies highlighting aspects of digital campaigns and the influence industry. The cases explore how consultancy firms work, regulation of diffuse actors in coordinated campaigns, and political party access to government data.

2024 Indian elections Series: volunteers, government data, and regulation

On the 24th and 25th January 2024, The Influence Industry Project will be hosting two free training of trainer workshops for educators, teachers, and facilitators working on elections: Voter Literacy and Investigation Techniques.

Training of trainers: Workshops and learning resources for Elections in 2024

Governmental policies in India are increasingly being digitised, making large amounts of personal data available to the ruling party, in particular.

by Safina Nabi

Government data in political hands: Aadhaar citizen ID and the 2024
Indian election campaigns 

This article takes I-PAC as one example of the consultancies involved in influencing India’s digital election campaigns, to shine a light on the industry at large.

by Vasudevan Sridharan

How an Indian political consulting firm works: A case study of I-PAC 

The regulation of political content on social media platforms is already complex and problematic, but is made even more complicated by the a loose network of political elite actors, influencers and the general public who create, share and disseminate content.

by Amber Sinha

Regulating Diffuse Actors in the 2024 Indian Elections

A deep dive into data-driven campaigning, uncovering the tools that are used to understand, target and influence voters around the world. The PDF guide, featuring case studies from around the world, gives clear descriptions of thirteen of the methods, explaining how they work, how they use personal data and the advantages and risks that they pose to political processes.

Personal Data: Political Persuasion Guidebook 

The “buzzer” industry in Indonesia–an industry of influence operators working behind the scenes–has been increasingly visible and economically important in Indonesia beyond only their work on digital campaigns. Becoming involved with a buzzer agency allows young marginalized people an opportunity to leave the workforce of physical labor and establish themselves in the increasingly digitized professional landscape.

by Pradipa P. Rasidi

Transformative Working-Class Labor in Indonesia's Political Influence
Operations

Researchers Tilak Prasad Pathak and Ujjwal Prajapati from the Center for Media Research-Nepal explore in detail the established use of platforms, the increasing use of polling and other forms of data collection on voters, and attempts to manage misinformation based on the most recent election and experiences from previous elections.

by Tilak Prasad Pathak and Ujjwal Prajapati

Online platforms, Polling, and Misinformation: Electioneering strategies
in Nepal

In this article, author Qemal Affnagon examines the reported role of telecom group MTN in political campaigns across Africa as well as exploring the evolving political context in Benin, which could become a setting ripe for interference by the influence industry.

by Qemal Affnagon

What Benin can learn from the role of the Influence Industry in West Africa

In this article, researchers from La Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) describe their process of using party's financial declarations to investigate private firms that worked with political parties in the 2021 legislative elections in Argentina.

by ADC, Milena Alvarez and Manuela Giménez Bautista

The influence industry in Argentinean Elections: Tracking firms through
financial reporting

In this article, Rayan Shaya examines the effectiveness of the political advertisement disclaimers on Facebook and Instagram during the 2022 elections.

by Rayan Shaya

The Transparency of Facebook Disclaimers in the 2022 Lebanon Elections

We are looking for journalists, researchers and civil society investigators from across the world to join us for the third edition of our two-week online Summer School organised by Tactical Tech’s Data and Politics and Exposing the Invisible projects between the 17th - 28th July 2023.

Call for participants - Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer
School 2023

Tactical Tech is looking for a professional Instructional Design consultant to develop workshop curricula for the Influence Industry Project to accompany each of the learning modules into training materials in the existing format.

Call for Instructional Design Consultant: Adapting research into workshops

Tactical Tech is looking for a research assistant to enhance the information in our Influence Industry Explorer, an open-access database that compiles information about companies working with political parties and candidates on data-driven and digital campaigns.

Call for Research Assistant: Explorer Database

An introductory animated video describing a variety of uses of personal data in political elections, and some important consequences on our political and democratic processes.

Your Data, Our Democracy [Bengali subtitles]

Your Data, Our Democracy [Greek subtitles]

Your Data, Our Democracy [Italiano]

Your Data, Our Democracy [Spanish subtitles]

We found over 300 companies around the world who use data to give political parties insights into who voters are, what they want to hear and how to persuade them.

Personal Data: Political Persuasion [Romanian subtitles]

Personal Data: Political Persuasion [Czech subtitles]

Personal Data: Political Persuasion [Mandarin subtitles]

In Module 4, learn about some of the ethical issues and questions that arise when data-driven campaign techniques are used in election campaigns.

New Module: The Dilemmas of Using Personal Data in Election Campaigns 

<ul>
<li>Privacy and Data-Driven Political Campaigns</li>
<li>How Data Logic Alters Politics</li>
</ul>

Module IV

The Dilemmas of Using Personal Data for Political Influence

Hon. Neema Lugangira (MP, Tanzania) speaks with Varoon Bashyakarla to discuss the relationship between online discourse and gender equity in leadership, how the agricultural and nutrition sector are intertwined with technology, and how a girls coding camp in Tanzania convinced a UN office to be more inclusive.

Interview with Hon. Neema Lugangira

In this article, we will look in depth at the different advertising possibilities offered by Google and YouTube, how they are used by political campaigns and what exactly consultants and agencies might be asked to do by a candidate or party.

by Glyn Thomas

Google Ads in Election Campaigns

In this visual essay, we use Donald Trump’s 2020 US presidential campaign as a case study to define the basic scope of the influence industry. To do this, we look into spending on data-driven influence services found in the Federal Election Commission’s spending database. As we follow the money, we also uncover information about the companies that played an influencing role in Trump’s 2020 campaign.

by Sihang Sun

The Industry Behind Your Vote: A Visual Essay

Kumar Sambhav and Varoon Bashyakarla discuss Sambhav’s latest investigative reportage about how Meta’s ad platform undercut political competition in Indian elections, the privacy implications of India’s national ID database, and why regulations need to be dynamic in order to protect citizens from the drawbacks of new technologies.

Interview with Kumar Sambhav

Your Data, Our Democracy [French subtitles]

Your Data, Our Democracy [Deutsch]

Join Varoon Bashyakarla and Eliana Quiroz as they discuss the unique work of Bolivian digital rights activists and organisers, and how they are mapping the disinformation ecosystem in Bolivia, particularly through the lens of the orgnisation that Eliana co-founded, Internet Bolivia.org.

Interview with Eliana Quiroz

In this conversation, Rafael Zanatta and Varoon Bashyakarla discuss how popular media often misrepresents techno-authoritarianism, the legal reaction to data breaches in Brazil and why data protection is for everyone.

Interview with Rafael Zanatta

The report and interview examines how data-driven methods, previously documented by Tactical Tech, were used in the Georgian elections.

The Use of Personal Data in Georgian Politics

Researcher and data journalist Nino Macharashvili speaks with data journalist Varoon Bashyakarla about the the state of politics in the country of Georgia in 2021.

Interview with Nino Macharashvili

As data is an asset for companies and campaigns, these entities will leverage their data through exchange or actin ways to gain more data.

Data as a Travelling Asset

The accumulation of data on voters has altered the dynamics of how politicians and political parties acquire and maintain power.

Data-Driven Campaigning Beyond Elections

<ul>
<li>Defining your Research Questions</li>
<li>Sources for Your Investigation</li>
</ul>

Module III

Research Methods for Investigating the Influence Industry

Examining the assumptions behind data logic, the phenomena that data allows society to create better, more impartial decisions at a higher leve.

How Data Logic Alters Politics

A deep dive into data-driven campaigning, uncovering the tools that are used to understand, target and influence voters around the world. The PDF guide, featuring case studies from around the world, gives clear descriptions of thirteen of the methods, explaining how they work, how they use personal data and the advantages and risks that they pose to political processes.

Personal Data: Political Influence [Arabic]

Personal Data: Political Influence [Español]

The right to privacy is one of the most prominent concerns when it comes to the broad and general collection of personal data.

Privacy and Data-driven Political Campaigns

Your Data, Our Democracy [Nederlands]

Tactical Tech’s Data &#x26; Politics team are seeking partners to enhance and co-develop The Influence Industry Explorer – an open-data tool which provides information about more than 500 companies involved in political influence and election campaigns. The main goal of the partnerships is to enhance the data in the database, and tell stories using the data.

Call for Partnerships: Enhance our research on the influence industry

Varoon Bashyakarla and Tetyana Bohdanova speak about Tetyana’s research on digital influence within the 2019 Ukrainian elections and the digital political landscape in 2021.

Interview with Tetyana Bohdanova

Research Tetyana Bohdanova gives final pieces of advice for researchers, journalists and investigators.

Risks and Considerations for Conducting and Publishing Research on Elections

Researcher Tetyana Bohdanova takes readers through three steps to conduct and analyze research

The Steps for Conducting Your Investigation

Read more about “The Influence Industry Explorer”, an online investigation tool that comprises evidence on 500 companies that work with political groups in over 30 countries to influence voters’ opinions.

The Influence Industry Project: Explorer Release

Tetyana Bohdanova helps readers to find data to support their investigations

Sources for Your Investigation

Researcher Tetyana Bohdanova guides readers through the process of choosing and defining a research question, scope and subject.

Defining Your Research Questions

The Influence Industry Explorer exhibits the myriad companies working in political influence across the world. In this article you can find a glossary of the data we’ve included and sources we used.

The Explorer Explainer

An interactive curation of public data on the companies that make up the influence industry

Start exploring the companies

Varoon Bashyakarla speaks with Linda Bonyo and Catherine Muya about the opportunities and challenges of working on digital policy and advocacy in Kenya and across the African continent.

Interview with Lawyers Hub: Linda Bonyo and Catherine Moya

Join us as we hear from international researchers, professional and organisers. Inspired by the excellent work of professionals within our international networks, these interviews are a way to amplify the work and voices of the community examining the global and local practices of influencing elections.

The Influence Industry Project: Interview Series 1

The most common model used for psychometric profiling is the OCEAN model, named for the five main personality traits it measures. This tool allows visitors to take their own personality test, which then feeds them political ads.

A Drop in the Ocean

Personal Data: Political Influence Guidebook

Project Lead, Amber Macintyre, worked with UK research team to conduct a deep dive investigation into the UK 2019 general election. The research paper examines the role of election suppliers in the UK using the public electoral spending database.

United Kingdom: Regulating the Business of Election Campaigns

Consultant Brad Parscale develops Donald Trump's social media campaigns in 2016 and 2020, Experian is a data broker that sold data to political parties in the UK and Brazil, uCampaign make political apps across the world. These few examples are only a small fraction of hundreds of companies that are part of a wider industry working behind the scenes of our political opinions.

Investigating the Companies Behind our Political Opinions

Reflection on the two-week online Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer School 2022 including speaker highlights, program overview and participant feedback.

Reflection: Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer School 2022

In this conversation, Varoon Bashyakarla and Bob Diachenko discuss the often underreported causes of numerous breaches and data leaks, the effects of GDPR and other legislative measures and what could be expected of politicians running data-driven campaigns in the future.

Interview with cyber-security expert: Bob Diachenko

We are looking for journalists, researchers and civil society investigators from across the world to join us for the second edition of our two-week online Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer School organised over 6 half days between the 18th - 29th July 2022.

Call for participants: Investigating the Influence Industry: Summer School 22

Tactical Tech is seeking partners to co-develop creative educational resources and organise interventions to contribute to our Voter’s Guide pack – a set of resources designed to promote citizens’ critical thinking about the use of their personal data by political groups to influence public opinion, elections, and other political participation.

Call for partnerships: Develop a voter’s guide on digital political influence

This Data Detox Voter’s Guide describes a few of the most popular methods candidates are employing to win your support, so you can cast your vote with the knowledge of how and when these persuasion techniques are being used on you.

A Voter's Guide: 7 Tips to Detox Your Data

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted many of us to ask ourselves: what can we do right now, how might our future change, and what could we have done? This article examines these questions for those of us working on digital influence, whether on political communications, misinformation campaigns, or data-driven marketing.

Defining Political Influence after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

How can the personal data accumulated by the Influence Industry be segmented and applied within the political context?

Module II

The Political Data Technologies Framework

Read aobut how personal data becomes political data in political influence campaigns

Data: From Personal to Political

Learn about the features of influence in current political campaigns.

Defining Political Influence

Visit the Learning Modules for answers to fundamental questions surrounding the Influence Industry.

Learn About The Influence Industry

Background research and accumulated knowledge gathered by Tactical Tech's Data &#x26; Politics teams as well as their international project partners over the course of a number of years can be found here in thematic resource bundles. Resources and content referred to in the Learning Modules can also be found here. Much of the content links out to Tactical Tech's legacy project Our Data, Our Selves.

Resources

Companies and the Industry

Investigations

Inside the Influence Industry: What’s for sale?

The Influence Industry Long List

Who’s Working for Your Vote?