Brookings Breakout Scale

The Brookings Breakout Scale is a tool for grading how far a disinformation campaign — run through fake accounts or manipulated content — really "broke out." Much like how an earthquake's magnitude is expressed as a number, this scale sorts campaigns into tiers based on whether they stayed confined to the narrow space where they started (one or two accounts, a single platform) or spread across multiple platforms, drew real reactions from ordinary users, and even pulled in media coverage or political attention.

For instance, a manipulated account that posted content nobody saw and then fizzled out would rank low on the scale. On the other hand, if that content ended up quoted in actual news coverage or spilled into policy debates, it would rank much higher. What makes this scale distinctive is that it measures not how sophisticated a campaign's production was, but how much real reach it achieved among actual people.

When companies or researchers publish findings on state-linked influence operations, citing this scale alongside their report makes it easier for readers to judge whether the incident was a minor blip or something with real-world impact.

When an AI company reports uncovering a Russia-linked or other state-tied influence network, it sometimes cites this scale to describe how far the campaign actually spread. Contrary to a common misconception, a high rating doesn't mean the technology behind the campaign was sophisticated — it simply indicates how much reach the campaign achieved among real users.