From Heart-Speech to Hate-Speech: A Discourse Analysis of Nationalism on Social Media in Vietnam

This study analyzes nationalist discourse on social media in Vietnam through the case of the 2024 Southeast Asian football final between Vietnam and Thailand, alongside the controversy surrounding a Vietnamese girl wearing a Thai jersey to support the rival team. Drawing on theories of imagined communities, Critical Discourse Analysis, and verbal aggression, the research examines 20 posts and 238 public comments on Facebook during the 16 days following the match. The findings identify four main discourse groups: positive patriotism, extreme nationalism, autonomy-preserving, and manipulative. The results show that online nationalism both reinforces community cohesion and creates mechanisms of exclusion with risks of radicalization. The study contributes by clarifying the dimensions of defense and critique while suggesting implications for building a more tolerant and healthy digital discussion space.