Influence Operations as Brokerage: Political-Economic Infrastructures of Manipulation in the 2022 Philippine Elections

Abstract

This study conceptualizes influence operations (IOs), an enterprise that orchestrates manipulative and inauthentic activities to achieve political advantage, as a contemporary form of brokerage during elections. It investigates the empirical case of IOs engaged in covert political campaigning in the 2022 Philippine General Elections through qualitative field research. Drawing from 22 in-depth interviews with IO leads and staff, we define IOs’ broker attributes, their brokerage processes, and the capital and value they generate through brokerage. We identify four mechanisms of brokerage by IOs: infrastructural capacity, reputation manipulation, relationship building at scale, and obscured accountability. These mechanisms complement the brokerage work by aboveboard campaigns and other brokers by compensating for their limitations and innovating campaign strategies. We argue that IOs are not extraneous deviations but are logical extensions of existing political infrastructures and should be understood as operating with other normative forms of political campaigning.