Local news hijacking: a review of international instances

Abstract In the rise of the digital era, it’s easier than ever to create nefarious websites to spread misinformation. A more recent phenomenon in the United States has been the creation of inauthentic local news websites to further an information operation campaign. This paper is a review of the 7 instances in which local news websites were created to influence residents of a region between 2005 and 2024. By breaking down the ways in which these sites operated, we discovered commonalities in the approach - resurrecting “zombie” papers that were previously established authentic local news organizations, sharing these sites on social media, and using website templates from WordPress. We also identified which countries are more vulnerable to have fake local news infiltrate its news ecosystem - those with the most freedom of press, a high democracy index, and a low cybersecurity exposure index. By analyzing these commonalities, we propose ways to mitigate the occurrence of these campaigns in the future.