Sportswashing on Social Media

States have learned that a highlight reel travels farther than a press release. Sportswashing, the use of sports investment and spectacle to launder a state’s reputation, has moved onto social platforms, where state-funded sports content reaches audiences that would never engage with official messaging.

The brief examines how content-moderation regimes designed for misinformation translate to this kind of soft-power campaign, where the content itself is true, entertaining, and sponsored, and proposes platform-level interventions that fit the problem rather than forcing it into a misinformation frame.

Written in 2026 for a policy audience; accepted for later publication, with the full text to follow here once it is out.