sexta-feira, 6 de março de 2026
As of March 6, 2026, the perception of Dubai as a "safe haven" for the global elite and social media influencers has been significantly challenged following a series of Iranian missile and drone strikes.
Dubai
influencers’ lives of luxury interrupted by Iran strikes: ‘The image of safety
has been shattered’
As of
March 6, 2026, the perception of Dubai as a "safe haven" for the
global elite and social media influencers has been significantly challenged
following a series of Iranian missile and drone strikes. While the UAE's air
defenses intercepted the majority of the hundreds of projectiles launched,
falling debris caused fires at iconic luxury landmarks and led to casualties at
regional airports.
Impact on
Influencers and Residents
Shattered
Perception: For many, the "facade of safety" that attracted expats
and influencers to Dubai has been pierced. Influencers like Hofit Golan and
Will Bailey described scenes of disbelief and chaos as missiles were
intercepted directly above the city.
Legal
& Content Restrictions: Influencers face strict government oversight, with
warnings of imprisonment and fines up to Dh200,000 (€46,000) for posting
"unverified" information or content that could harm the state's
reputation.
Conflicting
Narratives: While some creators shared authentic panic—documenting sheltering
in basements—others have been accused of posting "tone-deaf" or
state-sponsored content to maintain the city's image of normalcy.
Uncertain
Futures: Prospective residents, including fitness influencer Will Bailey, have
paused relocation plans due to the sudden shift from a "safe oasis"
to a conflict-affected zone.
Damage to
Luxury Infrastructure
Fairmont
The Palm: A fire broke out at this prestigious Palm Jumeirah hotel due to
missile impact or debris, resulting in four injuries.
Burj Al
Arab: Debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at this world-famous
"seven-star" hotel.
Aviation
Hubs:
Dubai
International Airport (DXB): Sustained damage to a concourse and minor
injuries, leading to massive flight cancellations.
Zayed
International Airport (Abu Dhabi): Reported one fatality and seven injuries
following an incident at the terminal.
The UAE
Ministry of Economy and Tourism states that tourism facilities and hotels are
currently operating under "highest safety standards". However,
regional travel remains heavily disrupted:
Flight
Suspensions: Most scheduled Emirates flights are suspended through at least
March 7, with only limited repatriation flights operating.
Limited
Resumption: Etihad Airways has begun a limited resumption of commercial flights
as of today.
Economic
Outlook: Analysts warn that the conflict could lead to a loss of $34 to $56
billion in regional tourist spending for 2026.
Dubai influencers’ lives of luxury interrupted by Iran strikes: ‘The image of safety has been shattered’
Dubai influencers’ lives of luxury interrupted by
Iran strikes: ‘The image of safety has been shattered’
Contradicting images of parties and war flood
feeds after Iran targets Gulf states in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks
Alaina Demopoulos
Tue 3 Mar 2026 19.51 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/dubai-influencers-iran-war-strikes
Mike Babayan was in a hookah lounge when he heard
the explosion on Saturday night. Dubai – a gilded playground for the ultra-rich
and oligarch class, billed as one of the safest places on Earth – had been
attacked by Iranian missiles. Phones lit up with emergency messages urging
residents to take shelter. But Dubai is resilient, at least when it comes to
partying. “Everyone just went back to their hookah and food a minute later,”
said Babayan.
Still, as a precaution, that night Babayan moved
from his main home in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building and the
anchor of the Dubai skyline, to a residence further from the city center.
There, he could hear the explosions much clearer – one every 20 to 30 minutes,
he said. “But everyone is just having coffees, walking around like there’s no
care in the world. It’s pretty insane.”
Babayan is 23 and originally from Los Angeles. He
moved to Dubai, the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, in 2020 to
work in finance. He now documents his life as a day-trader and flexes the
trappings of influencer life (BMWs, million-dollar apartment) to his nearly
150,000 TikTok followers. Over the weekend, he shifted his focus to
commentating on the Dubai strikes in the direct-to-camera style typical of
influencers, the city’s night skyline shimmering behind him. He felt a
responsibility to combat misinformation; when he saw an AI-generated video of
the Burj Khalifa burning, he told his followers it was fake.
But he couldn’t resist showing off a little, too.
In one clip, Babayan said he felt that Dubai remained safer than New York, Los
Angeles and London, even amid the war. Where else, he asked, could he walk
around at night wearing his $60,000 watch undisturbed? “I feel like that’s more
important, not having to look over my shoulder every two seconds, compared to
the chances of a drone hitting me, which I feel is not as likely,” he said.
Iran began targeting neighboring Gulf states with
missiles and drones in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks that have killed more
than 700 Iranians, including 168 people at a girls’ elementary school,
according to Iranian state media. Caught by surprise, influencers living in
Dubai responded in the way most natural to them: by flooding the information
void with scenes from a life of luxury interrupted by war.
Will Bailey, a British travel influencer with
nearly 500,000 followers, witnessed the missiles fall from his perch at a beach
club. The DJ did not stop playing thumping beats as Bailey and others posted
videos of themselves staring at the nearby Fairmont The Palm hotel engulfed in
smoke. (Sample response in his comment section: “Why is everyone still
partying?”) Another visiting travel influencer posted his vantage point of the
attack, from the deck of a yacht party.
One British entrepreneur visiting Dubai became
the face of entitlement after she complained that the conflict grounded her
flight, saying in a since deleted video: “It’s really annoying actually because
we have got events, we’ve got meetings, probably going to have to cancel them.”
“Influencers give the impression that they are
more douchey in the way they portray life,” said Babayan. “That does piss
people off, and now they’re saying that [the chaos] is well deserved.”
Dr Sreya Mitra is an associate professor of mass
communication at the American University of Sharjah who studies south Asian
influencers based in Dubai. (The UAE is overwhelmingly populated by
expatriates, the largest demographic being Indians, Pakistanis and
Bangladeshis.) Indian television news channels face what some have called a
“credibility crisis”, and Mitra says Indians living in Dubai felt the need to
reassure friends and family back home.
“Indian social media influencers are trying to
counteract and factcheck the hyperbole of Indian news channels,” Mitra said.
“[These influencers] are reinforcing a narrative of normalcy. They’ll say,
‘Hey, it’s 2am and I’m here in the Ramadan market or downtown Dubai, and it’s
safe.’”
The UAE has reported three deaths and 68 injuries
since the war started – far less than those reported by Lebanon and Israel, and
more than Qatar and Bahrain, according to Al Jazeera. The UAE said it destroyed
or intercepted most of the missiles and drones launched at it by Iran; the
Fairmont hotel and airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi sustained damage, and on
Tuesday a drone strike reportedly hit the US consulate’s parking lot in Dubai,
causing a fire but no injuries.
Some influencers downplayed the strikes. “We are
calm. We are protected. We are in safe hands,” a Ukrainian influencer captioned
her video montage of Emirate leaders. “There’s no place I’d rather be,” wrote
another Dubai-based content creator over clips of picturesque sunsets and bike
rides along the beach.
The influencer facade
The influx of content from the Gulf has brought
into focus the strange interplay between state repression and the uninhibited
lifestyle that influencers show on their socials.
Dubai is known as the influencer capital of the
world, playing host to an ecosystem of content creators, agents, producers and
luxury brands ready to tap into the talent pool. Professional posters are
required to obtain an operating license that can cost up to $4,000. They are
ordered by the UAE’s media council to “respect” the state, its politics, and
“the divine and Islamic beliefs, as well as all other religions and beliefs” in
their posts. The “safest place in the world” moniker often touted by influencers
comes at the expense of an immigrant working class subject to abuse and
suppression, and an advanced system of civilian surveillance.
“Dubai and the UAE in general have very
strategically used the idea of creators and influencers to promote the country,
not just to the west but to the global south,” said Dr Zoe Hurley, an associate
professor of media at the American University of Sharjah and author of the 2023
book Social Media Influencing in the City of Likes: Dubai and the Postdigital
Condition. “They strategically deploy digital assets to hold up a mirror to the
world and provide a place of affordable destination as an alternative to the
American dream.”
Hurley describes the mood among UAE-based
influencers now as one of shock and vulnerability. “People are attracted to
living here because previously, it was this safe oasis in this region. That
idea has been shattered,” she said. “I’m someone who questions authenticity in
my writing, but I’m seeing quite authentic responses to this situation.”
She notes that news coverage and commentary
painting influencers as “selfish” does not take into account the full story.
“People pay $20 US dollars to go to a beach club and look like they’re living
in an Instagrammable place, but that’s kind of the facade,” Hurley said. “It’s
really a city and a place of contradiction.”
Bailey, the influencer who shared videos of
missiles from his beach club, has defended himself from commenters who called
his posts sensationalist and misinforming. “All I’m doing is I’m documenting
what’s happening,” he said in a video posted on Monday. “I’ve had thousands of
messages from people who are grateful for the videos I’m putting out.”
But no TikTok can fully encapsulate a conflict
that was decades in the making and the result of more than 70 years of US and
Israeli entanglement with Iran. Influencer dispatches from the Gulf’s biggest
cities are inherently “ahistorical”, said Peter Loge, an associate professor of
media and public affairs at George Washington University. “These content
producers are saying: ‘Hey, here’s a quick video, it’s exploding, it’s scary.’
But you can’t do more. [That] is not what social media is built for, and that’s
not what people are on TikTok to learn about.”
Users across the globe are eagerly scrolling
through “POV” war content. Loge likened the feed to the next evolution of
“disaster tourism”, a uniquely western phenomenon where travelers visit recent
catastrophes sites (such as monied tourists visiting the ruins of Pompeii in
the 1700s, or bus tours descending on New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after
Hurricane Katrina). Of course, Dubai’s influencer class did not realize they
were about to witness disaster themselves. Nevertheless, they were in prime
position to film, caption and post as it happened. “Whenever anything big
happens, we try to make sense of what happened,” Loge said. “It’s
meaning-making, this is what we do all the time as human beings. These
influencers are part of the meaning-making ecosystem.”
The plan is just, life goes on, and to enjoy
ourselves as much as possible as we can while we’re here
Mia Plainer
Mia Plainer, 23, is a social media planner for a
fashion and beauty-themed social media channel in London. She and a friend
found themselves in Dubai this weekend on “a little break” from the corporate
grind. They were on a boat when the missiles started falling. The coast guard
brought them back to shore, and they ended up sheltering in their hotel’s
garage for the night, sleeping on sun loungers brought in from the pool deck.
Plainer filmed their experience, which she called
a “juxtaposition” of war and luxury, for her family and followers. “There’s
this narrative of ‘Oh look at all these influencers crying about how war’s
going on and they’re not used to it,’” she said. “But I think it opens your
eyes to how anyone and everyone is in the same situation, no matter your
status.”
Plainer said she has empathy for people in war
zones, many of whom have shared their experiences on TikTok. “Whenever I see
the situations going on in Israel, or Ukraine … I’m always shocked that these
people have to live this reality,” she said. “This is their day to day, and
I’ve just come out for a trip, it’s just a few days of my life.”
By Tuesday, the vacation had returned to normal.
Plainer and her friend hope to fly home on Thursday afternoon; the UK is
preparing to evacuate citizens in the Gulf, and the US urged Americans to leave
14 countries in the Middle East including the UAE. However, flight availability
and air travel remains uncertain as the war escalates across the region. For
Plainer, “the plan is just, life goes on, and to enjoy ourselves as much as
possible as we can while we’re here”.
This
article was amended on 3 March 2026 to include mention of a drone strike
reportedly hitting the US consulate’s parking lot in Dubai. It was further
amended on 4 March 2026 because an earlier version incorrectly paraphrased Mia
Plainer’s view on people living in war zones. This has been replaced with the
actual quote.
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