Influencers as emerging actors in global digital propaganda

This article conceptualizes the emerging phenomenon of ‘influencer propaganda’, which we define as the various persuasive, strategic communicative actions by social media influencers that promote political and ideological agendas through popular content and emotional appeals, with the intent to affect behaviour and belief among their followers. The current discussion of such practices frequently reproduces a dichotomy of ‘illegitimate’ vs ‘legitimate’ political communication. In contrast to this, we propose viewing influencer propaganda as a near-global political activity that can be found in both domestic and external spheres, regardless of political system and national context. By illustrating this phenomenon with observations from China, we argue that influencer propaganda in China and beyond is not solely dictated by traditional political actors but is instead negotiated through the interplay of political, corporate, and personal interests, all mediated by the affordances of digital platforms and embodied in the influencers’ digital performances.