Saudi Arabia has chosen to use Instagram influencers as a way to help boost its global image.
They took this route instead of stopping the execution of gays and journalists and embracing basic human rights.
The murder of newspaper columnist Jamal Khashoggi last year was the last straw for the world. Saudi Arabia’s continues to deny involvement in his killing and dismemberment. PR firms that prop up the Islamic kingdom in DC received a “scarlet letter.” Executives and investigators cut ties and canceled visits to Saudi Arabia.
So why not use social media influencers?
Los Angeles-based travel blogger Aggie Lal took this opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia. From Bloomberg:
Her 10-day tour was arranged by Gateway KSA, a program that started offering tours two years ago and is funded by Saudi corporate sponsorship. It’s hosted by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief who later had a short stint as Saudi ambassador to the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.—“What we present to these young people is that there’s another side to the story about Saudi Arabia than what they simply read in the press,” Prince Turki says of the guests of Gateway KSA. “We have much to do in the kingdom to affect the opinion of others.”The program’s effort “shows that the Saudis are looking far beyond just lobbying and public-relations firms to garner sway in the West,” says Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, which tracks lobbying at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C. After the kingdom’s efforts to rebrand were derailed by Khashoggi’s murder, “it just makes perfect sense for them to pursue alternative avenues of influence like this,” he says.
Some of Lal’s 800,000 followers lashed out at her “propaganda,” but others decided to follow in her footsteps to Saudi Arabia:
She posted stories of her trip, including how she stumbled across rules on gender segregation by accidentally entering the male side of a Starbucks. Lal recalled broaching the topic of Khashoggi’s murder with Saudis whom she met. They told her they weren’t proud of what their government did, she says.“I think everyone from any country in the world can relate to that statement,” says Lal, speaking by phone last month while on a tour in Europe. “It’s obviously not a very popular opinion. People want me to talk badly about Saudi,” she says. “We live in America, and it’s more convenient to demonize other countries so you feel like there’s nothing to learn from.”
Dutch-Australian influencer Nelleke Van Zandvoort Quispel developed the idea of Gateway KSA after she visited Saudi Arabia. The visit shed light on “another side of the country.” She met Prince Turki at a Georgetown event and proposed the idea to him.
Harvard students became the first to use the delegation in 2018. Since then over “200 people have visited through the program,” mainly influencers and university students:
Their costs are covered, though they don’t receive any other fees.Gateway KSA doesn’t have a direct relationship with the government, though sponsors include state-controlled Saudi Telecom, Saudi Basic Industries, and Saudi Arabian Airlines. “It’s not that I’m particularly pro-Saudi or have a political agenda,” Quispel says. “I think the way in which we show the country is in a very subtle and fair way.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to open the kingdom to the rest of the world by loosening “social restrictions.” He celebrated “a concert by French DJ David Guetta at a motor racing festival also attended by influencers.”
Saudi Arabia will also “issue tourist visas for the first time later this month.”
Sane people had perfect reactions to this news. Some of us cannot brush aside the brutality that remains in the regime despite the changes made by Prince Mohammed.
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