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Influence Tactics Protocol

An open standard for detecting manipulation in digital content.

What is the ITP?

The Influence Tactics Protocol (ITP) is an open specification for detecting, scoring, and communicating information manipulation in digital content. It defines a 20-category assessment framework organized into five composite factors, producing a final 0-100 manipulation score.

The protocol is designed to be implementation-agnostic. Any platform, application, or browser extension can implement the ITP to provide interoperable manipulation detection. The specification defines the scoring categories, data structures, API contracts, and conformance levels — not the specific algorithms used to calculate scores.

The 20 Categories

Each category measures a specific influence technique on a 1-5 scale. Categories are grouped into five composite factors.

Emotional Manipulation (25% weight)

  1. Emotional Manipulation — fear, outrage, guilt without evidence
  2. Call for Urgent Action — demands immediate decisions
  3. Overuse of Novelty — framed as shocking/unprecedented
  4. Emotional Repetition — same triggers repeated
  5. Manufactured Outrage — anger disconnected from facts

Suspicious Timing (20% weight)

  1. Timing — suspicious coincidence with events
  2. Financial/Political Gain — powerful groups benefit
  3. Historical Parallels — mirrors past manipulation campaigns

Uniform Messaging (20% weight)

  1. Uniform Messaging — phrases repeated across media
  2. Bandwagon Effect — pressure to conform
  3. Rapid Behavior Shifts — coordinated adoption of symbols

Tribal Division (15% weight)

  1. Tribal Division — us vs. them dynamic
  2. Simplistic Narratives — good vs. evil frameworks
  3. False Dilemmas — only two extreme options

Missing Information (20% weight)

  1. Missing Information — alternative views excluded
  2. Authority Overload — questionable experts
  3. Suppression of Dissent — critics silenced
  4. Cherry-Picked Data — selective statistics
  5. Logical Fallacies — flawed arguments
  6. Framing Techniques — story shaped to control perception

Conformance Levels

Implementations declare conformance at one of three levels:

Level 1: ITP-Core

Calculate all 20 categories, 5 composite factors, and overall score. Provide JSON API with /v1/analyze endpoint.

Level 2: ITP-Validated

All Level 1 requirements, plus support for /v1/validate and /v1/consensus endpoints for distributed validation.

Level 3: ITP-Full

All Level 2 requirements, plus perspectives, detailed evidence, guidance, and batch analysis. SHOULD implement historical scores when applicable.

Open Source

The ITP specification is published under the MIT License and is free for anyone to implement. The full specification, JSON schemas, and reference materials are available on GitHub.

Read the Full Specification

The scoring framework was inspired by publicly discussed work by Chase Hughes on influence and behavioral analysis. The ITP is an independent specification, not affiliated with or endorsed by Chase Hughes or any related organizations.

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