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."
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
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