Explore 500+ companies operating in the business of political influence through our interactive and open database or read the case studies from us and our partnerships on the influence industry, its role in specific countries and regions, and our research methodologies.
An interactive curation of public data on the companies that make up the influence industry
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’.
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…
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…
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 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…
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.
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.
Governmental policies in India are increasingly being digitised, making large amounts of personal data available to the ruling party, in particular.
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…
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.
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…
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.
In this article, Rayan Shaya examines the effectiveness of the political advertisement disclaimers on Facebook and Instagram during the 2022 elections.
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.
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…
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…
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.
Few companies from within the Influence Industry have broken out of professional circles and given themselves reason to capture the public imagination as Cambridge Analytica. We use the FEC spending database in the US to look beyond the headlines to investigate a wider and deeper scope of this…