This introduction for the special issue “Disinformation-for-Hire as Everyday Digital Labor” carves out a specific area of inquiry within the ever-growing field of disinformation studies, with its sharp focus on the commercial transactions, organizational logics, and entrepreneurial practices that propel the production of disinformation. Inspired by traditions of political economy, media production studies, and everyday life approaches, this framework draws analytical focus to (1) the slow-burn horror of disinformation as everyday digital labor; (2) the diverse industries and workers engaged in disinformation production; and (3) regulatory areas beyond social media content policy and platform-centric accountability—especially relevant in the Global Majority context. Furthermore, this essay discusses how digital labor studies need to engage more directly with the ways disinformation thrives in the gray in-betweens of formal/informal and licit/illicit digital economies. The essays in our collection mobilize “disinformation-for-hire” as a valuable analytical frame that lays bare disinformation as a product of commercial and political complicities in the late capitalist arrangement of transnational digital industries.

中文翻译：

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雇佣虚假信息作为日常数字劳动力：特刊简介

《雇佣虚假信息作为日常数字劳动力》特刊的这篇介绍，在不断发展的虚假信息研究领域中开辟了一个特定的调查领域，重点关注商业交易、组织逻辑和创业实践，这些领域包括：推动虚假信息的产生。受政治经济学传统、媒体生产研究和日常生活方法的启发，该框架将分析重点放在（1）作为日常数字劳动的虚假信息的缓慢燃烧的恐惧；(2) 从事虚假信息生产的不同行业和工人；(3) 社交媒体内容政策和以平台为中心的问责制之外的监管领域——在全球多数背景下尤其相关。此外，本文讨论了数字劳动研究如何需要更直接地参与虚假信息在正式/非正式和合法/非法数字经济的灰色地带中蓬勃发展的方式。我们收藏中的文章将“雇佣虚假信息”作为一个有价值的分析框架，揭示了虚假信息是跨国数字产业晚期资本主义安排中商业和政治共谋的产物。