Propaganda evolves with technology, but the mission never changes: shape perception to shape policy. Propaganda has always evolved with technology. During World War I, the United States built its first formal influence machine through the Committee on Public Information (CPI), which saturated newspapers, films, posters, and public speeches with messaging designed to rally support for entry into the war. CPI coordinated messaging across every major medium to shape public attitudes, turning propaganda into an organized federal enterprise rather than scattered persuasion efforts. Historians have documented how this system normalized government involvement in journalism and ushered in a new relationship between media and state power.
After World War II, influence campaigns became a permanent part of the U.S. defense posture. The Department of Defense defined psychological operations as planned efforts to deliver selected information to foreign audiences to influence emotions, reasoning, and behavior, a definition appearing in Joint Publication 3-13 on information. Later guidance, such as DoD Directive 3600.01, framed information operations as the integrated use of multiple tools to influence adversary decision-making and protect U.S. decision-making in return.
The post-9/11 era revealed how deeply perception management had become embedded. The Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers showed senior officials repeatedly delivered optimistic public briefings while privately acknowledging confusion, failure, and manipulated metrics intended to sustain the appearance of progress in a war that lacked a coherent strategy. Interviews describe a system where shaping the story became a strategic objective of its own, often overshadowing ground realities. In practice, this created a feedback loop in which the narrative drove policy instead of reflecting it.
Foreign States Adopt and Expand the Model
The United States is not the only actor studying these methods. Russia’s Internet Research Agency modernized propaganda by using fabricated social-media personas, emotional targeting, and coordinated content streams. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan report details how Russian operatives reached Americans during the 2016 election cycle, documenting the scale and tactics in its public release. This evolution marks a shift from traditional broadcasting to algorithmic influence, where targeted content appears personalized rather than manufactured.
Geofencing American Churches
The most striking recent example of targeted influence comes from Israeli-linked public relations contractors using geofencing to deliver political messaging around U.S. churches. Reporting based directly on Foreign Agent Registration Act filings shows that Show Faith by Works proposed to “Largest Geofencing and targeted Christian Digital Campaign ever. Geofence the actual boundaries of every Major church in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, and all Christian Colleges during worship times. Track attendees and continue to target with ads.”
Arizona offers a confirmed list: 38 churches appear by name in FARA attachments published by Arizona Public Media. Texas filings reviewed by the Houston Chronicle reveal more than 200 churches identified for potential targeting. Foreign-agent filings show the influence firm proposed geofencing churches across four states, including 219 megachurches in California, 38 in Arizona, 14 in Nevada, and 32 in Colorado – a combined network described in the proposal as a priority audience for targeted messaging. This is propaganda by coordinates: political messaging delivered not by demographic category but by physical location during moments of worship.
Paid Influencers as a Parallel Network
Alongside geofencing, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a large-scale paid influencer campaign. Invoices filed with the Department of Justice show that Bridges Partners billed nearly $900,000 for fourteen to eighteen influencers producing seventy-five to ninety posts on TikTok and Instagram. Investigators who reviewed the invoices calculated that the compensation amounted to roughly $6,100 to $7,300 per post, figures documented in the reporting.
Show Faith by Works intends to expand the strategy by contracting Christian influencers with large youth audiences, integrating them into the same system that already pays creators thousands of dollars per post to promote government-aligned narratives. This model blends state messaging with what looks like personal testimony, making propaganda feel intimate and authentic.
The Algorithmic State
Across these developments, a pattern emerges: propaganda no longer broadcasts to the public but follows individuals through their daily routines. Cold War leaflets became targeted Facebook personas. Broadcast radio became a geofenced sanctuary. Press conferences became monetized influencer posts.
Whether through Russia’s digital factories or Israel’s church-geofencing strategy, the principle remains constant: shape the informational environment so thoroughly that the messaging feels like part of everyday life rather than a political operation.
Why It Matters
Propaganda works best when it is invisible. They are continuous, data-driven, and intimately tied to the platforms people use for news, conversation, and community. The techniques employed have changed, but the objective has not. Control the story, and you control the political reality built around it.
