# Attribution Laundering **Domain:** Information Warfare / Provenance / Influence **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Concept Hub:** [[wiki/War With Empire|War With Empire]] ## Definition **Attribution laundering is the concealment of an originating sponsor by routing a message through fabricated, impersonated, local, or apparently independent speakers.** The content acquires credibility and political effect from the identity falsely or selectively attached to it. ## Mechanisms Methods include front organizations, forged publications, unattributed briefing, planted stories, covertly supplied talking points, cutouts, and the impersonation of real groups. Laundering can also exploit a willing intermediary whose sincere convictions align with the sponsor's objective. ## War With Empire Context [[articles/war with empire/The Real Deep State Is British|The Real Deep State Is British]] connects the documented doctrine of unattributed British placement to [[wiki/Threat-Provenance Audit|Threat-Provenance Audit]]: the relevant question is not only whether a claim is true but who assembled, authenticated, and distributed it. ## Key Insight **Control of the attributed speaker can be more consequential than authorship of the words.** ## See Also [[wiki/Black Propaganda|Black Propaganda]], [[wiki/Authentication Power|Authentication Power]], [[wiki/Front Organization|Front Organization]], [[wiki/Cyber Attribution|Cyber Attribution]]