Abstract
This article examines how ethnonational boundaries are produced, negotiated, and regulated through Instagram interactions in Kazakhstan. The aim of the study is to explain how ordinary users, influencers, and digital publics participate in the everyday construction and policing of national belonging beyond formal state institutions. The object of the study is Instagram-based identity performance and audience interaction, with particular attention to visual representation, language choice, “uyat,” “shala-Kazakh,” and public comment practices. Methodologically, the study employs qualitative digital ethnography, multimodal discourse analysis, thematic coding, and descriptive statistical analysis. The empirical corpus consists of 45 public Instagram accounts and 390 posts collected from January 2025 to January 2026, supplemented by the analysis of comment threads and five semi-structured expert interviews. The results show that Hybrid identity performances dominate the sample, accounting for 48% of analyzed posts, while Traditional performances represent 27% and Modern/Decolonial performances 25%. Audience responses also reveal a dual structure of digital nationalism: 52% of responses reinforce belonging through approval, solidarity, and civic pride, whereas 17% involve explicit shaming, criticism, or “uyat”-based judgement. The findings demonstrate that Instagram functions both as a space of hybrid identity experimentation and as a mechanism of social regulation. The article introduces the concept of “networked ethnopolitical governance” to describe how national belonging is regulated through decentralized user practices, including “language policing,” “lateral surveillance,” “digital vigilantism,” and the “weaponization of visibility.” The study contributes to debates on nationalism, ethnopolitics, digital governance, and Central Asian studies by showing how the nation is continuously performed and policed in everyday digital life.