Platform Piety and Religious Influencers: Authority, Authenticity, and Marketization in Everyday Islam

Abstract

Religious communication is increasingly shaped by digital platforms where visibility, audience interaction, and monetization affect how piety is recognized and circulated. In contemporary Muslim publics, social media influencers have become important intermediaries in the translation of religious knowledge, the performance of authenticity, and the organization of everyday moral guidance. This article examines how platform piety reorganizes religious authority, authenticity, and marketization in everyday Islam. It adopts a qualitative and theory-driven approach grounded in digital religion studies, platform sociology, and the sociology of authority. The analysis draws on public-facing platform content, media discussions, policy materials, and scholarly literature related to Islamic influencers, digital religious communication, and platform governance. Attention is directed to four interconnected dimensions: knowledge translation, authenticity work, marketization, and the politics of platform visibility. A mechanism-based synthesis is used to clarify how religious legitimacy is reformatted through short-form communication, interactive trust, entrepreneurial branding, and algorithmic circulation. Religious authority emerges as increasingly hybrid, depending not only on doctrinal credibility but also on communicative fluency, visible sincerity, and economic navigation within platform environments. Platform piety therefore expands access to religious guidance while also intensifying new forms of surveillance, inequality, and reputational vulnerability. The article contributes to the field by offering a sociological framework for understanding how digital infrastructures reshape religious authority and moral life in contemporary Muslim publics.