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DUBAI: With 1 million followers, Busra Duran’s Instagram presence is nothing short of a fairy tale. From touring Moscow to drinks in Dubai, Duran lives the life of a classic Middle Eastern luxury influencer.

In fact, that’s why she moved to Dubai from Turkey. “Here are the big brands,” her husband Gokhan Gunduz told The Guardian. “She shows her lifestyle in Dubai to attract people. Not only Busra benefits from this, but also Dubai.”

Duran, of course, is one of the many social media influencers whose accounts are flooded with pictures and videos of exotic locations, fancy restaurants, the latest beauty treatments, and so on.

The same is true of many Lebanese influencers whose Instagram accounts tell stories about travel, food, beauty and shopping. Of course, there is no mention of closed businesses, lost jobs, poor health or abandoned homes. The reality of the state of the country is betrayed through its social media accounts.

According to World Bank data, Lebanon’s economy shrank by 20 percent in 2020, and 35 percent of companies closed stores or closed branches in 2021, according to the Beirut Traders Association.

The Lebanese are a resilient people. Through bombings and assassinations, the country has survived and its people have found success and happiness in Lebanon and other countries.

A woman in an abandoned construction site in Lebanon. (Shutterstock)

But now, with the Lebanese pound trading on the black market at almost 20 times what it was two years ago, many are struggling to afford even the bare essentials, let alone a holiday or a fancy night out. The country’s economic situation is at its worst in more than 150 years. In Lebanon, which imports more than 80 percent of its basic goods, prices have skyrocketed.

But such stories are not posted on Instagram.

Flaunting wealth on social media can wreak havoc on users’ emotional and mental well-being – especially when people are struggling for basic needs and businesses are closing.

Aditi Bhatia, Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University Dubai, told Arab News: “At a time when many have suffered financial loss themselves, seeing how wealth or luxury is likely to remind people of their own shortcomings being flaunted on social media false impression of their peer group.”

“We live in a world where many people around the world are without basic needs or otherwise in need, and that’s an unfortunate reality in both good times and bad,” said Dubai-based influencer Becky Jefferies. “But I don’t see social media as a cause – or a solution – to economic challenges at the micro or macro level.”

“Nonetheless, I believe that influencers should take some level of responsibility when it comes to how they use their personal platforms. Many of them have earned the trust of a mass audience and should therefore take care to do the right thing, e.g. B. Not tolerating or spreading hate or not supporting unrealistic standards of beauty,” Jefferies added.

Although several influencers and celebrities try to show the reality of life on social media, a lot of content tends to highlight the good parts of their lives, not the bad. “People tend to selectively share more personal successes than failures online,” Bhatia said.

She noted that social comparison theory suggests “that people have an innate need to compare themselves to others in order to understand their own abilities and social status.”

According to the theory, people either made upward comparisons by comparing themselves to those they felt were better or more successful, or downward comparisons by comparing themselves to those they felt worse or less successful.

“Individuals who tend to pull social comparisons higher may experience a range of negative mental health effects, such as low self-esteem, increased stress, self-harm, depressive symptoms and loneliness,” Bhatia added.

In February last year, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, announced that it had banned nearly 4,000 users for deliberately flaunting their wealth. In November, Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like app, said its team had disciplined 240 accounts since May for posting “wealthy content.”

The moves are part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s nationwide effort to redistribute wealth. Authorities have ordered social media platforms to remove all content flaunting wealth, though standards for determining appropriate content are vague.

At a press conference last year, Zhang Yongjun, a senior official in China’s cyberspace administration, said, “The standard is the impact that the content has. Can spreading this content inspire people to be healthy, ambitious and work harder for a beautiful life? Or does it fulfill people’s vulgar desires?”

Despite the possible negative effects of displaying wealth on social media, regional authorities do not appear to regulate such content.

Fiona Robertson, Partner, Head of Cedar White Bradley’s Media and Technology Practice, said: “China doesn’t allow a lot of content that we would consider harmless. And that’s just the very controlling nature of the Chinese government, which we don’t have here.”

She pointed out that every country and every government has its “thing” when it comes to media regulation.

“Britain, for example, is very strong on defamation. Privacy is very important in this region and violations of privacy are taken very seriously. In the US, they take nudity very seriously in the mainstream media.

“It’s just common worldwide and everyone has these rules that they have to follow,” she added.

However, the region has different rules expected of social media influencers. Last year, a Bangladeshi waiter in Dubai was sentenced to six months in prison after adding fake shots to a TikTok video.

A construction worker in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Shutterstock)

Shortly thereafter, a social media influencer was jailed for three months and fined 100,000 Emirati dirhams ($27,225) after he captured video footage showing him driving a luxury vehicle in Abu Dhabi with more than drove 205 kilometers per hour. The passenger who recorded it also received a similar fine and both men were banned from driving for six months and the car and their phones were confiscated. They were also banned from using their social media accounts for six months.

Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection in Dubai Economy fined a car dealership last October for a misleading campaign that offered cars with special specs, benefits and gifts for consumers who bought through a social media influencer.

“Dubai Economy holds the merchant responsible for any misleading campaign found on the company’s social media account or conducted through a social media promoter,” the CCCP said in a statement.

Robertson said that liability often rests with the brand the influencer is working with, an important consideration when brands use foreign influencers. “The influencers themselves aren’t as effectively licensed under our local laws, they haven’t necessarily committed to the compliance that the brands themselves should and should have,” she added.

According to a study by Deloitte, around 85 percent of luxury consumers use social media, with each using three platforms on average. So it’s no surprise that social media plays a huge role for luxury brands, just like influencers play a huge role in social media.

“It’s important to keep in mind that many influential social accounts are just another medium for brands to reach people,” Jefferies said. “Blaming influencers for posting their experiences would be like blaming brands for promoting premium goods and services.

A refugee camp in the UAE. (Shutterstock)

“The fact that social media can encourage audiences to get out of their homes and try that new restaurant, shop at that new local boutique, or travel to that cool destination is a positive thing — for the economy, too,” added Added Jefferies.

On TikTok, for example, users love to share details of what they are buying and make recommendations to their audience, leading to the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, which garnered 4.6 billion views in 2021.

In the United States alone, Generation Z and Millennials represent around $350 billion in spending power, according to management consulting firm McKinsey. Today, these younger consumer groups – the biggest users of social media – have unprecedented spending power. And while that may not be reflected in world economies, it is on social media.

“Social media today has evolved to fulfill many roles beyond connecting people and providing a source of entertainment, one of which is to give individuals a voice and provide access to information otherwise neglected by traditional News outlets could be censored, carefully spun or filtered out. ‘ said Jefferies.

She added: “Some influential users choose to use their platform positively, others don’t. If some followers find certain types of content offensive or unmusical, they have the freedom to unfollow, just as we all have the freedom to share or say anything (in accordance with each platform’s respective community guidelines) – and that’s the beauty of social media.”

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