By Steven Lee Myers The videos appeared across social media in August before the closely contested Democratic primary for the United States (US) Senate in Michigan. They showed people on the street expressing support for one of the candidates, Representative Haley Stevens, and discussing the issues that mattered most to them.

 “Definitely affordability,” a woman who identified herself as Darlene from Detroit said in one video. “You’ve got to make sure people can make a living.” At least three dozen videos in all appeared on X, Facebook, Threads and Instagram, where they were viewed millions of times. While they projected grassroots authenticity, there was little authentic about how they reached voters.

 The accounts that spread them were based not in Michigan but mostly in India, according to two research organisations that track disinformation. Posters were paid $1 to $5 for each thousand views to sway an election on the other side of the world, misleading viewers to think the content was organic to their feeds on social media.

 These types of videos have become a prominent new feature of American political campaigns, spreading inorganic content on social media to attract voters without disclosing the ties to 

candidates or their proxies.

 They resemble tactics — and even use some of the same for-hire bot networks — that Russia and China have employed to try to influence American voters.

 Similar efforts to create and spread inauthentic content have cropped up in other elections, including the mayoral primary in Los Angeles last summer, the race for governor in California and a get-out-the-vote campaign targeting Black voters in Ohio.

 “The whole information ecosystem right now is based in some sense on blurring the lines between who are legitimate sources, if you want to call them that, and shadier, more nefarious sources,” said Daniel Weiner, a senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, a voting rights organization. The videos reflect a shift in campaign tactics as prospective voters tune out traditional political outreach in an increasingly fractured, algorithmically driven media environment online. 

 The source of the interviews in Michigan — and the money behind them — remains a mystery. So does the identity of the people who appear in the videos.

 One of the Instagram accounts, Energetic Humor, is operated by a man in Mumbai, India, who in an interview identified himself as Ayush Jain. He said he had made about $15 on each of 40 posts he published on different accounts he controlled.

 While the creators of the videos are unknown, the campaign appears likely to have been tied to one of a number of political action committees or other groups that sought to help Stevens defeat her top rival in the race, Dr Abdul El-Sayed. He prevailed in the primary on August 4, which was closer than polls had predicted, and will face the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers, in November.

 The videos do not appear to  be deepfakes, realistic images  fabricated with artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Some showed recognisable streetscapes in Detroit. In others, services that detect AI, flagged possible indications of manipulation or fabrication. The videos were not attack ads. The comments focused on political issues and praise for  Stevens, though at least one singled out criticism of Dr El-Sayed from a right-leaning online news organisation over tax return disclosures.