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Dubai loves influencers and influencers love Dubai, and they love it so much that some of the top international players even moved there.
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And with them comes the attention of millions of followers.
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In 2020 with rather few covid 19 restrictions in place, Dubai became a popular destination for influencers trying to escape lockdowns in their home countries.
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But the seemingly glamorous lifestyle comes with a catch.
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They are not allowed to criticize their new home, Dubai, in terms of coming across Western and appealing, the certainly wants to position themselves as a destination attractive for travel and investment for Westerners.
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So the U.
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S has been seen as it's quite open until you actually, then you realize there are some lines you definitely don't want.
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Across Dubai present itself as the number one backdrop for influenza deals with luxurious brands.
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I love the place, and it gave me a very strong career.
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I gave me a very good start, which which I would always be thankful, Uh, you know, for So for example, me being an Indian influenza, if they want to talk about Indians in Pakistani Asians, uh, then a lot of brands would want to work with me.
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The sheer number of influencers even prompted the United Arab Emirates to introduce a media license just for influencers.
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What appeals to influences apart from just the destination itself and the environment is, um, that they've attracted some massive brands from around the world some of the largest companies to base themselves in Dubai or to at least have a major regional hub in Dubai.
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And that makes them particularly attractive because there are lots of commercial opportunities for influences to enter into.
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And it also works out for the day in Dubai itself because it really puts them on the map.
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Appearing safe, modern and liberal is beyond valuable for the Gulf state, and many influences feel at home here, although it's in Arabic country or fortunately, the by particularly do not have any kind of crazy restrictions, which is great.
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So they are quite liberal, I can say.
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And yet, critics point out, Dubai ranks very badly when it comes to press freedom.
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Influencers are expressly forbidden to criticize the Emirates.
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People cannot talk negatively about the government.
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They can't talk negatively about the weather or anything that could be considered possibly negative.
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We also have instances where people cannot even share articles that are negative about the criticizing the state and its leaders could land you in jail, as could kissing your partner in public or the endorsement of equal rights for the l G B T Q plus community.
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In some cases, people have even been jailed for social media posts they created years ago and in a different country.
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If you're an influencer, you go there and you break the law.
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You cannot guarantee that you're going to be treated in a different way to everyone else.
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You could end up being free within 48 hours if you're lucky, or you could end up with 48 months in a Dubai jail.
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For most influencers, this risk seems far away.
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In my experience, I don't feel that, uh, there's anything like that that you know you'll be criticized or you'll be detained or something of that sort.
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I have been living here like almost six years until now.
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I never face and issues, but as I mentioned before, I was always careful what I'm saying.
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What I'm posting.
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Everybody wants to go and sink with the place.
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Nobody wants to be out of the place like especially, you know, with a place like the Bible.
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Human rights organizations have raised serious questions about the monarchy rule in Dubai, but those concerns are hard to find on Instagram influences, their sponsors and the U.
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A e all benefit from this gag rule.
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Yeah, a lot of cases the financial rewards would would certainly outweigh some of those ethical considerations.
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So there's been a lot of debate about this, um, in various contexts, within the influence of space.
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And it's a very, very personal decision, and it comes back to that individual influences where they draw that line.
