Diaspora Diplomacy or Digital Mobilization? Voices from Abroad, Platforms and Generative AI in the Gen Z Protest Wave, 2024-2026.

Youth-led protests between 2024 and 2026 drew in people outside their countries: exiled commentators, migrant workers, students abroad and settled diasporas. Was this diaspora diplomacy, or digital mobilization of audiences at home? Coding 40 cross-border actions, grouped into 24 campaigns, documented in English, French and Bangla sources across six episodes centered on Bangladesh, I find that action from abroad was aimed mostly at home, although the share depends on how it is counted. Diaspora diplomacy appeared once institution-facing sources were searched, but rarely on behalf of the movements themselves. The article’s main contribution concerns voice. Building on representative-claims theory, I define self-appointed representation from abroad and separate representative claims, directives and boundary-drawing, mandates, and four kinds of uptake. In Bangladesh after the uprising, two exiled commentators issued directives and drew the uprising’s boundaries without any mandate; crowds sometimes acted in sequence with their posts, and others pushed back. The cases suggest that platforms let visibility become representative authority without organizational accountability, and that generative AI cheapens counterfeit claims about hidden backers.