A passenger reacts after disembarking from a Emirates flight coming from Dubai at Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport on March 4, 2026. Thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled in the biggest disruption to global air transport since the Covid pandemic as airlines suspend services to the Middle East following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. (Photo by Izhar KHAN / AFP)
Since early on Saturday, foreigners in the United Arab Emirates have been sharing videos of plumes of smoke rising above the skyscrapers. They have also been expressing their shock that the usual haven of stability was under attack.
“OMG!” Israeli wellness influencer Hofit Golan repeatedly exclaims in a video that shows a building near her apartment on fire.
British content creator Will Bailey was updating his TikTok followers by filming the trails of smoke left by missiles and interceptor rockets in Dubai’s skyline.
“That was metres away from us,” he says in a video filmed near the Fairmont Hotel, which was hit by a strike on Saturday.
Other influencers were less composed. France’s Maeva Ghennam waved her passport around and told viewers she “screamed hysterically” when she heard a strike.
“France, protect us!” said Ghennam, who rose to fame via reality television.
Some have criticised the “total disconnect” of the “bling-bling world” from the geopolitical realities of the Middle East.
“We’re seeing a ‘back-to-reality’ moment for influencers who settled” in Dubai, according to journalist Emma Ferey. Her 2024 novel Emirage chronicles the Emirati capital’s influencer scene.
According to Ferey, in this “under-informed world… everything seems easy”.
“The bubble is starting to burst,” she said.
‘Talking politics’
Dubai has, in recent years, become a hive of influencers, entrepreneurs and millionaires. They have been drawn by the city’s business-friendly and income-tax-free environment as well as the lavish lifestyles on offer.
The city has nearly four million inhabitants, 90% of whom are foreigners. It also hosts one of the busiest airports in the world.
It appeared to have been hit on Saturday, with officials saying four staff were injured. A concourse was damaged during “an incident”.
In a video posted on Saturday on a beach full of sunbathers, real estate consultant Deepti Mallik struck a reassuring tone. She told viewers that there is “nothing to be scared of”.
“I feel this country takes the security of its residents and tourists very seriously,” she said.
Ferey said, “You can sense anxiety among influencers… even though they know perfectly well that talking politics or worse, geopolitics, means risking losing followers or being hit by a wave of harassment.”
Content creators are “contractually bound” to brands, which obliges them to keep posting no matter what, according to the journalist.
“Even if it’s just for shampoo, the video has to go out. It’s this disconnect that can come across as indecent in the eyes of the public, to keep making money while the world is burning.”
Benjamin Samat, a French influencer living in Dubai, took to Instagram to lash out at “those who on social media are rejoicing that the French are going through this”.
Samat added that he wouldn’t want “anyone to be woken up by missiles exploding in the sky in the middle of the night”.
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