Palestine: How UAE influencers and major brands took a stand

The Secret to Social Media

If there was one thing that sums up social media is Newton’s third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Mankind itself has never been as comfortable or as polarised in its hundreds of thousands of years of history. For every opinion, you’ll have a counter opinion. For every political ideology, you’ll have an opposite side of the spectrum that will complain that its being discriminated against. The more polarising the voice, the louder it becomes. Social media follows the law of the soapbox right after it follows the Newtonian laws: incite and get your cheers.

When Noise Becomes One

But occasionally, there comes a point when all the noise goes to one side and majority of the voices clamour for one cause or call to action: this time it was Gaza. An attack on Al Aqsa Mosque prompted a series of violent events that lasted around 11 days. Children died. A media building was bombed. Some media platforms came under fire on social media for not using the appropriate terms for the series of events. The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists’ Association created a set of guidelines on ‘how to cover’ Palestine and Israel fairly and ‘accurately’. In one of the points, they mentioned how to avoid ‘both sides’ framing. They talked about trying to avoid the word ‘clash’. “Confrontations often begin with police dispersing demonstrations using tear gas and rubber bullets,” it said. Earlier an Associated Press reporter was fired for her ‘activism’ and many social media users lamented censorship from way of Big Tech (notably Instagram and Twitter) when they wanted to post pro-Palestine content.

Tales of Courageous Influencers

TikTok, a platform usually considered brainless by many folks who think they’re too good for social media or to follow trending stories, was burning with the scathing commentary that wouldn’t have been allowed in most platforms. And it didn’t stop there. For the first time, brands and celebrity influencers weren’t afraid to take a stand. Mega-influencers, usually afraid of stirring the hornet’s nest with their opinions, marched on the streets and shared items furiously on their platforms. Their courage was infectious.

Performative or Not, Does Wokism Work?

Be that as it may, many of the performative wokism that many influencers bandwagonned worked. Many celebrities marched in Pakistan to speak up for Gaza and Palestinians only a short while after Bella Hadid marched in New York. Curiously, no celebrity in Pakistan has ever — and I mean ever — marched for Gaza except for some right-wing folks and some of their pals in the industry. In India, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhasker, Naseeruddin Shah and Nora Fatehi were among the few who spoke up for Palestine even though the government openly condemned the violence and reiterated support to the ‘just Palestinian cause’.

mahwash@khaleejtimes.com