We study the effects of dark energy (DE) anisotropic stress on features of the matter power spectrum (PS). We employ the Parametrized Post-Friedmannian (PPF) formalism to emulate an effective DE, and model its anisotropic stress properties through a two-parameter equation that governs its overall amplitude ($g_0$) and transition scale ($c_g$). For the background cosmology, we consider different equations of state to model DE including a constant $w_0$ parameter, and models that provide thawing (CPL) and freezing (nCPL) behaviors. We first constrain these parameters by using the Pantheon, BAO, $H_0$ and CMB Planck data. Then, we analyze the role played by these parameters in the linear PS. In order for the anisotropic stress not to provoke deviations larger than $10%$ and $5%$ with respect to the $Lambda$CDM PS at $k sim 0.01 ,h/text{Mpc}$, the parameters have to be in the range $-0.30< g_0 < 0.32$, $0 leq c_g^2 < 0.01$ and $-0.15 < g_0 < 0.16$, $0 leq c_g^2 < 0.01$, respectively. Additionally, we compute the leading nonlinear corrections to the PS using standard perturbation theory in real and redshift space, showing that the differences with respect to the $Lambda$CDM are enhanced, especially for the quadrupole and hexadecapole RSD multipoles.