Special Series | Viet Tho Le, Performing authenticity, amplifying authority: Influencer propaganda and digital patriotism in Vietnam
The emergent concept of “influencer propaganda” highlights an important shift in the politics of influence in the digital age, namely the shift in the location of ideological persuasion from institutional sites to affective and native cultural figures (Xu & Schneider, 2025; Woolley, 2022). Instead of depending on institutional and state-level persuasion, the politics of influence has increasingly come to be managed through the agency of “influencers.” The politics of influence in Vietnam, therefore, takes a unique shape in the sense that, unlike in the cases of China and the West, where the politics of influence is often associated with the orchestration of influencers and AI-powered persuasion respectively (Goldstein et al., 2024), the politics of influence in Vietnam takes the form of “soft alignment.” In this article, I use the term “soft alignment” to describe a mode of ideological convergence in which influencers voluntarily adapt their discourse to dominant nationalist norms through audience feedback, algorithmic incentives, and reputational risk, rather than through direct state coordination or coercion. The digital landscape in Vietnam is characterized by a “mixed political economy of the internet” (Le, 2020; Luong, 2020; Bui, 2016), where a one-party regime coexists with what reports suggest is one of the most commercially dynamic and algorithmically active social media landscapes in Southeast Asia (DataReportal, 2024; We Are Social, 2024). While neighboring markets like Indonesia or Thailand possess larger user bases, Vietnam’s unique combination of high smartphone penetration, rapid growth in social commerce, and intense digital labor from influencers creates a distinctively “active” environment (Google Temasek & Bain, 2024; We Are Social & Meltwater, 2024).
Chinese media scholarship has long demonstrated how platform governance, algorithmic visibility, and informal disciplinary mechanisms contribute to the reproduction of nationalist consensus online, often without the need for constant direct intervention (Rawnsley et al., 2026). These processes blur the boundary between persuasion and participation, embedding ideological norms within everyday digital practices. Vietnam offers a complementary perspective by showing how similar outcomes can emerge in the absence of tightly coordinated platform-state arrangements. Here, ideological conformity is negotiated through influencer self-optimization, audience feedback, and algorithmic learning rather than explicit directive control.
Platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube have become the most important sites of information and media consumption for the youth. Influencers like travel and food reviewers, “knowledge explainers,” and lifestyle figures have emerged as important intermediaries of meaning in the digital landscape of Vietnam. The important point here is that many of these figures do not identify as political figures. However, the content of their messages often mirrors and reinforces the ‘official’ narrative of national unity and sovereignty.
Based on long-term observation and comparative research, this commentary advances a conceptual account of influencer propaganda in Vietnam rather than a systematic empirical mapping[1]. This research contends that influencer propaganda in Vietnam occurs via the concept of “performative patriotism,” which is an approach to ideological alignment where the influencer acts as a patriotic moral entrepreneur, not as an official agent of the state.
When influencers become patriotic moral entrepreneurs
Research on Chinese online nationalism demonstrates how patriotic influencers and celebrities often function within a tightly regulated ecosystem shaped by platform governance, political signalling, and informal mechanisms of moral discipline (Rawnsley et al., 2026). Within this context, expressions of nationalism are frequently aligned with state narratives through a combination of visibility incentives and regulatory constraint. This body of work provides a useful comparative reference point for understanding influencer propaganda beyond electoral or liberal democratic contexts. However, as the Vietnamese case illustrates, ideological alignment does not necessarily require overt orchestration or direct state sponsorship.
Unlike the highly orchestrated influencer propaganda found in China and Russia, Vietnamese influencer propaganda does not often involve the influencer working under the direct sponsorship of the state. Ideology aligns via the convergence of interests between the state and the influencer, where the influencer benefits not only via the algorithms but also via the symbolic capital of the influencer as the “responsible” citizen of the online community.
One of the most notable instances of this can be found within the influencer community of patriotic travel vloggers who promote domestic tourism as an act of patriotism. Influencers often post content celebrating the border regions, historical military sites, and “forgotten” rural areas of Vietnam as an act of patriotism. These narratives were especially prominent during the time of heightened geopolitics within the South China Sea, where travel content subtly promoted the territorial sovereignty of Vietnam without directly addressing the issue of sovereignty itself. Patriotism here is not argumentative but aesthetic, where the influencer invites the viewer to feel patriotic, not think patriotically.
The second case is more explicitly political. In 2023-2024, public controversies around Vietnamese celebrities’ foreign utterances and their “unpatriotic” actions served as a backdrop for the emergence of several lifestyle commentators’/ opinion influencers’ viral videos that promoted calls for boycotting or morally condemning Vietnamese celebrities. The influencers’ actions can be characterized as spontaneous expressions of national dignity rather than political policing. The notable fact here is that such videos often preceded or accompanied official media coverage of the issue. As BBC News Vietnamese has documented, moral campaigning by influencers was crucial for shaping public opinion before any official regulatory measures were announced (BBC News Vietnamese, 2025a, 2025b).
In both instances, they assumed a role of “moral intermediary”: an “everyday” citizen who speaks “from the heart” in the name of the nation. This allows them to speak with authority precisely because they do so in a way that is perceived as apolitical. In this sense, these influencers function as moral entrepreneurs, defining the boundaries of acceptable national sentiment while appearing to speak as ordinary citizens rather than political authorities.
How authenticity works as a political technology
Authenticity is a key component in influencer propaganda. Vietnamese influencers often highlight their “everydayness,” their regional dialects, their simple family backgrounds, or their personal struggles. This enables ideological messages to circulate while remaining perceptually insulated from the label of propaganda.
Unlike traditional propaganda, where a certain ideological stance is promoted in a prescriptive manner, influencer propaganda relies on affective storytelling. Influencers share their feelings of pride, regret, or gratitude. Nationalist sentiment is embedded in their daily routines, such as “I love eating Vietnamese food,” “I only consume Vietnamese brands,” “I am proud of Vietnam’s resilience,” or “I am concerned about Vietnam’s image abroad.” This resonates with Tian et al.’s (2025) study on the role of emotional familiarity and credibility in influencer-led political persuasion.
This form of communication blurs the line between participating in a culture or a political movement. The audience is not required to take a political stance but rather share a feeling or an emotional state. As Woolley (2022) noted, influencer propaganda is most effective when it “merges with culture rather than being perceived as persuasion.”[2]
Learning to align: Algorithms and soft ideological convergence
One of the most significant characteristics of influencer propaganda in Vietnam is that no form of coercion is evident. Influencers do not get pressured to produce content that promotes patriotism or nationalism. Instead, they ‘learn’ what works best by means of experience, negative feedback, or even algorithms.
Content that takes a different view or is ambiguous is often demonetized, harassed, or ignored. This pressure to conform is not necessarily a result of direct state-platform coordination, as seen in China, but rather through ‘mass reporting’ campaigns by nationalist netizen groups. US platforms like YouTube and Facebook, governed by algorithms optimized for “brand safety,” may automatically demonetize or limit the reach of content flagged as “controversial” or “inducing social instability” to appease advertisers and avoid local regulatory friction. Thus, the platforms’ own commercial logic inadvertently serves to reinforce nationalistic consensus.
This creates a system of “soft alignment,” where ideological conformity is negotiated rather than dictated. Influencers adapt their discourse to ensure it stays within acceptable moral boundaries, and the state receives the benefits of widespread dissemination of aligned ideological narratives without directly engaging with them. This creates a decentralized yet remarkably homogeneous digital nationalism, which could perhaps be termed “platform-mediated ideological consensus.” This process also blurs the lines between propaganda and free speech, which are often drawn as binary opposites. As Xu and Schneider (2025) point out, propaganda by influencers occupies a “grey zone” between personal agency and structural power. Vietnam represents this ‘grey zone’ where ideology is reproduced not through centralized propaganda, but through countless individual expressions of citizenship optimized for maximum online engagement.
Implications for the study of digital propaganda
What can Vietnam’s experience teach comparative research on influencer propaganda? Three key implications arise for the study of digital propaganda. First, Vietnam shows that even without highly developed AI systems or coordinated efforts, effective ideological persuasion can still occur. As Goldstein et al. (2024) have demonstrated, persuasion is less related to the origin of messages and more related to their perceived ‘trustworthiness.’
Second, Vietnam’s experience points to the significance of regional political culture. In semi-authoritarian states, political influence shifts from institutional spaces to cultural spaces. Influencer propaganda represents a form of “everyday nationalism,” which reproduces ideological consensus through lifestyle content rather than mobilizing political participation.
Finally, Vietnam also serves as a reminder of the limitations of an analytical lens too closely fixed on the problem of disinformation and foreign interference. Much of influencer propaganda operates in plain sight, within the realm of entertainment and moral commentary.
Conclusion
Influencer propaganda in Vietnam is not loud, coordinated, or technologically spectacular. Rather, its effectiveness lies in its ordinariness. Influencers’ performance of authenticity and authority enables the translation of state-aligned narratives into emotionally engaging and participatory forms of digital practice. Patriotism becomes a lifestyle choice, a moral stance, and a branding strategy — hard to argue against because it doesn’t wear its propaganda heart on its sleeve. Comparatively, the Vietnamese case suggests that the future of digital propaganda may lie less in technological sophistication than in the routinization of ideological affect within everyday influencer cultures.
As the conversation on influencer politics in Asia continues to evolve, Vietnam serves as a reminder that the most effective forms of digital persuasion can also be the least visible as such.
Notes
[1] This commentary builds upon qualitative data gathered through long-term observation and comparative research of the digital media landscape in Vietnam. The analysis focuses on the digital practices of influencers across platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, which have emerged as the primary sites of information and media consumption for Vietnamese youth. Rather than a systematic empirical mapping, these notes offer a conceptual account of the rise of ‘influencer propaganda’ and ‘digital patriotism’ within a mixed political economy of the internet.
[2] The concept of ‘influencer propaganda’ as used in this article highlights a shift in ideological persuasion from institutional sites to affective and native cultural figures. This process aligns with recent scholarship emphasizing how digital propaganda is most effective when it merges with culture rather than being perceived as overt persuasion (Xu & Schneider, 2025).
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Dr. Viet Tho Le is the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Creative Communication at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City. He holds a PhD in Communications, Media Studies, and Journalism from Edith Cowan University, Australia. His research expertise encompasses AI governance, digital transformation in journalism, and platform-based communication. Dr. Le is the co-author of Social Media and Political Participation in Vietnam (Springer, 2024) and currently leads research projects on Generative AI governance and digital citizenship.
To cite this essay, please use the bibliographic entry suggested below:
Viet Tho Le, “Performing authenticity, amplifying authority: Influencer propaganda and digital patriotism in Vietnam,” criticalasianstudies.org Commentary Board, March 22, 2026; https://doi.org/10.52698/AUTS1180.