Influencers and celebrities paid to visit and promote Saudi Arabia despite human rights violations

Sofia Richie and partner Scott Disick were two of the celebrities who attended the festival. Photo / Getty Images

Social Media influencers and celebrities - including Sofia Richie, Scott Disick, Steve Aoki, Winnie Harlow and Alessandra Ambrosio - have earned a backlash for visiting and promoting MDL Beast music festival in Saudi Arabia despite the country's human rights abuses.

Insider revealed that the Saudi government has paid influencers and celebrities to visit and promote the country in an attempt to try improve its reputation and push for tourism.

A fashion and culture commentary Instagram account, Diet Prada, publically critiqued socialites for attending the music festival.

Diet Prada shared in a caption: "According to anonymous sources, six-figure sums were offered for attendance and geo-tagged posts."

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What’s worse than an all white @revolve influencer trip? Cashing big fat checks in exchange for #content creation (aka propaganda) to rehabilitate the image of Saudi Arabia, a country said to be causing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, according to the United Nations. According to anonymous sources, six-figure sums were offered for attendance and geo-tagged posts. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Following the government’s pre-meditated murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi in October 2018 , the arrest of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018, the outing of a gay Saudi journalist and his partner who began receiving death threats from their families (homosexuality is a crime in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death), and countless other human rights abuses, a bevy of supermodels, influencers, celebrities, and musicians convened in Riyadh for the inaugural @mdlbeast . According to @hypebeast , the electronic music festival is “one of the most significant musical events the region has ever seen”. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Saudi Arabia has been spending billions to change its image in the west, but this is sure to be the most expensive campaign yet. In a series of Instagram stories posted by transgender model @teddy_quinlivan , it was revealed that fellow model @emrata had turned down the trip, evidently aware of the country’s human rights crisis. “It is very important to me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, freedom of expression and the right to a free press. I hope coming forward on this brings more attention to the injustices happening there”, said Ratajkowski in a statement to Diet Prada. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Unfortunately, not all shared the same sentiments. There are simply too many attendees to name. Dieters, feel free to tag any attendees you know of... just in case they haven’t been reading the news. • #propoganda #jamalkashoggi #humanrights #humanrightsabuse #lgbtq #lgbtqrights #freespeech #journalism #independent #womensrights #mdlbeast #edm #electronicmusic #supermodel #influencer #content #riyadh #emrata #emilyratajkowski #teddyquinlivan #model #celebrity #dj #electronicmusic #musicfestival #wtf #smh #government #corruption #dietprada

A post shared by Diet Prada ™ (@diet_prada) on Dec 21, 2019 at 2:04pm PST

Sofia Richie's Instagram post captioned: "Saudi Girls" was heavily criticised as many women's rights activists have been previously detained and tortured, Insider reported in August.

I’ve been too busy working to realize that a raft of influencers were just paid (again) to fly to Saudi to brighten MBS’s image. Seeing the caption “Saudi girls” is especially grating when I think of Saudi women’s rights activists jailed or exiled for pushing for basic freedoms. pic.twitter.com/lPd8YjrQVN

— Gissou Nia/ گیسو نیا (@GissouNia) December 21, 2019

Model Teddy Quinlivan has also publicly called out influencers who attended the festival.

American model Teddy Quinlivan has called out all those who were paid to visit Saudi Arabia. Photo / Instagram

Emily Ratajkowski told Diet Prada that she also was invited to attend and tour Saudi Arabia but turned it down.

Em Rata was invited to the music festival but declined. Photo / Instagram

Multiple attendees of MDL Beast have taken to Twitter to express their concern of sexual harassment witnessed by men at the music festival.

Many MDL Beast music festival attendees took to Twitter to share their concerns. Photo / Twitter

Many women were allegedly sexually assaulted at the festival. Photo / Twitter

Attendees were outraged at the festival. Photo / Twitter

Karen Attiah, the global opinions editor at The Washington Post, and assassinated Jamal Khashoggi's former editor, tweeted to praise Diet Prada's post and call out "the dark side of influencer culture is that it really is the ultimate expression of capitalism."

Props to the anonymous but AWESOME IG account @diet_prada for calling out the influencers and their agents for agreeing to use their image to help whitewash (socialwash?) the Saudi regime. pic.twitter.com/5KtyIRp8iB

— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) December 22, 2019