If an organization seeks to involve more people in wrongdoing, must every participant know its true objectives and explicitly agree to take part? Not necessarily.

Moral smear campaigns and humiliation do more than damage a person's reputation. They can also undermine an individual's ability to resist oppression, maintain social support, and seek justice.

Semi-visible structures in transnational repression conceal responsibility through distributed actors and competing rumors, producing self-censorship and social suffocation.