Cuando el Estado desinforma: Prácticas autoritarias en el ecosistema de información de Colombia y América Latina When the State Disinforms: Authoritarian Practices in the Information Ecosystem of Colombia and Latin America

Control over the information ecosystem and the public narrative is a hallmark of authoritarian governments. In the digital age, social media created new vulnerabilities within information ecosystems that can be exploited by different actors to undermine democracy: particularly the ease of deploying disinformation at scale, and the economic weakening of independent media. This article documents how the government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia exploited both vulnerabilities simultaneously and systematically through four tactics: the opaque use of state-funded influencers, the political mobilization of institutional social media accounts, the redirection of government advertising spending to the detriment of independent media, and editorial control over public radio and television. The article argues that, together, the simultaneous and systematic exploitation of these vulnerabilities can be characterized of authoritarian tendency. Finally, the article identifies several areas for intervention to mitigate these risks in the future.