False Academy Award Claims Spread Through Vietnam-Based Social Media Network

A widespread social media hoax claiming various celebrities received a special Academy Award for humanitarian work has been identified as part of an organized disinformation campaign originating from Vietnam.

The fabricated stories, nearly identical in structure but featuring different celebrities, claim that figures like Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, tennis star Coco Gauff, race car driver Danica Patrick, and more than a dozen others received an unusual Oscar “for the extraordinary impact of her compassion and sustained service to American communities.”

These posts follow a consistent pattern, describing emotional scenes where celebrities supposedly left “A-list actors wiping away tears” with “deeply personal” stories that made “the entire audience gasp.” The narratives attempt to build credibility by describing specific details of an event that never occurred.

Fact-checkers have determined these claims are entirely fabricated. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does present a humanitarian recognition called the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, given annually since 1957, but none of the celebrities mentioned in these viral posts appear on the official list of recipients.

An investigation into the source of these false narratives revealed they originate from a network of Facebook pages and websites managed from Vietnam. Meta’s transparency data shows that many of these pages, including one called “Sisters of Sound” that promoted the Ann and Nancy Wilson story, have changed names multiple times over the past two years—a common tactic to evade detection and build seemingly legitimate followings.

A Facebook search for the phrase “stunned the entertainment world after receiving a rare Academy Award” returns dozens of nearly identical posts, simply substituting different celebrity names. The list of falsely credited recipients includes Jon Bon Jovi, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruise, Cher, Adrien Brody, Trace Adkins, Willie Nelson, Jennifer Connelly, Keith Richards, and Kieran Culkin, among others.

This campaign appears to be part of a larger operation that digital security researchers have been tracking. Fact-checking organizations have identified at least 70 similar misinformation campaigns connected to this Vietnam-based network. These operations typically use AI-generated content to create false stories that capitalize on celebrity fame to drive engagement and website traffic.

The posts often link to websites with similar templates that continue the false narrative while generating advertising revenue. The stories typically include sensationalist claims and emotional hooks designed to encourage sharing among fans of the targeted celebrities.

Media literacy experts warn that such campaigns exploit emotional connections people have with celebrities they admire, making critical evaluation less likely. These operations can spread rapidly through social media algorithms that prioritize engagement, regardless of content accuracy.

To combat this type of misinformation, fact-checkers have published guidance on identifying these “Viet Spam” operations, noting telltale signs like awkward phrasing, recycled narratives with different celebrities, and Facebook pages managed from Southeast Asia despite claiming to represent American or Western fan communities.

The persistence and scale of this operation highlight growing challenges in the information ecosystem, where coordinated networks can deploy AI tools to rapidly produce and distribute false content across multiple platforms, targeting different audience segments with customized celebrity-focused misinformation.