Last week, influencers started going viral for sharing posts of their idyllic life in Neom, Saudi Arabia. But now, following backlash, NBC reports that at least five have gone silent.
Over the past week, TikTokers like Jessica Herman, for instance, were roasted for showing their ‘Don’t Worry Darling ’-esque lives in what appeared to be vlog-style videos.
As Herman ventured through the empty, heavily industrialized town to reach the communal dining hall, she was full of praise for her new home. But the rest of the internet was less convinced.
“The Saudis seem to be marketing Neom as some kind of planned suburb/encampment for wealthy Westerners,” investigative journalist Murtaza Hussain, who shared the clip, wrote.
In the replies, Neom was compared to a low-security prison and a Mars colony, with one X user noting how “going to a dining hall in your suburb feels potentially dystopian.”
Where did the Neom influencers go?
This clip and others like it faced widespread ridicule. Consequently, at least five influencers promoting Neom deleted or privated their social media pages.
NBC contacted a Neom city representative over claims these videos were actually propaganda. Denying the claims, the representative said in a statement: “All our marketing campaigns are published on our social media channels and our website.”
It’s worth noting that since its conception in 2017, Neom has been dogged with claims of human rights abuses.
It will take more than a few aesthetic TikToks to scrub that kind of stain away. However, if these TikToks’ existence wasn’t suspicious enough, their sudden removal doesn’t exactly help Neom’s credibility.
