Irrelevant Experts

Legitimation
Irrelevant experts is an influence operation that deploys credentialed individuals from unrelated fields as authoritative commentators on subjects outside their expertise, exploiting public trust in credentials to manufacture false expert consensus for state-aligned narratives.
Author
Affiliation

E. Rosalie Li

Information Epidemiology Lab

Published

February 17, 2026

Legitimation

Irrelevant experts is an influence operation that deploys credentialed individuals from unrelated fields as authoritative commentators on subjects outside their expertise, exploiting public trust in credentials to manufacture false expert consensus for state-aligned narratives.

FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
  author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
  title = {Irrelevant {Experts}},
  date = {2026-02-17},
  url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/irrelevant-experts.html},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “Irrelevant Experts,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/irrelevant-experts.html.