Social media influencers go dark on TikTok after promoting futuristic Saudi megacity
The videos from Saudi Arabia’s futuristic urban development project spread quickly across the internet, and almost as quickly started to disappear.
At least five influencers who had been posting videos from Neom, the multiyear project launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to build a high-tech megacity, have either closed their social media accounts or gone private after one video faced a wave of mockery on social media. A handful of smaller accounts within this small community of Neom-based content creators remain active, with their videos still viewable.
The videos, often made in a day-in-the-life format popular with vloggers, sought to glamorize daily life in Neom’s industrial apartments and a dining hall that drew comparisons on social media to prisons and military bases. This small community of creators, mainly women who say they moved to Saudi Arabia as expats or wives of expats, have all been touting seemingly utopian lives in Neom.
Neom, first announced in 2017, has drawn international attention and scrutiny for alleged human rights violations and environmental concerns.
Some online have expressed suspicion that the videos — many of which echo each other in listing out reasons to love life in Neom — were paid marketing, although they were not labeled as ads on TikTok, where these creators amass the majority of their audiences.
A representative for Neom said the city has not paid influencers to make videos about Neom and is not affiliated with them, stating, “All our marketing campaigns are published on our social media channels and our website.”
The spokesperson said the latest marketing campaign was about Saudi National Day and was shared to LinkedIn last week.
One video that drew particular attention on X came from a content creator who went by the name of Jessica Herman online before temporarily removing her profile from TikTok.
The mom of two identified herself as a South African expat living in Neom Community 1, a residential area for workers and their families. Before her profile went dark, she vlogged herself tidying up her minimalistic white-and-gray apartment before taking her toddlers on an evening stroll past boxy, uniform buildings and empty streets. After stopping at a post office labeled “Post Office,” she entered a dining hall labeled “Dining Hall” for a family meal.
“Ah, we have the best fruit here,” Herman said in the video, later filming her family walking around outside. “Guys, we also have the best sunsets here. It was such a beautiful evening tonight.”
NBC News viewed the video before it was removed from TikTok. Clips of it remain on X, where people recirculated it last week.
Historian Ellen Wald, who authored the book “Saudi, Inc.,” said she doubts the video and others like it would attract foreign professionals, as the clips made Neom look more like an outpost than a community.
“It’s almost eerie when she’s walking through the various parts of the town and it’s completely empty,” Wald said. “It looks like a modern mining town, like here’s your company housing and here’s the company dining hall.”
Many online were also not sold by Herman’s portrayal of her neighborhood. X posts that accrued millions of views called it “an industrial estate on the surface of the sun” and poked fun at the “space mining colony dining hall.”
Herman’s account was the first to vanish from TikTok soon after her video circulated on X, although now she’s back online and has made her profile private. On Thursday last week, at least four other Neom-based content creators suddenly went dark, though one account seemed to reactivate later that day. Each had tens of thousands of followers.
Before their content disappeared from public view, these women shared polished glimpses of the compound’s amenities. They filmed themselves going to Starbucks, shopping at the Tabuk Park Mall and meeting up with friends.
The few Neom-based creators still active on TikTok continue to post day-in-the-life vlogs of a workday in the project camp, cinematic clips of the desert city, and trips to Neom’s luxury island development Sindalah.
Hend Aly, a doctoral student at University College London who has researched Saudi Arabia’s branding of Neom, said the Crown Prince Mohammed has primarily marketed the city to an international audience, particularly young professionals, ever since its launch.
“The crown prince wants Neom to be seen as the modern, advanced, progressive place to be,” Aly said. “And he thinks that this is what would attract foreign expats, but also foreign-educated Saudis.”
Aly said Neom’s own advertisements have for years highlighted testimonies from workers who moved to the city, who often talked about their experiences in English-language videos.
While Neom has confirmed it is not working with influencers, Wald noted that Saudi Arabia does have a history of recruiting influencers to promote tourism in the country, often by flying them out for luxury trips and events. Whether their content works as intended, though, is a different story.
“It’s kind of interesting that there’s definitely some whitewashing of difficult realities of what it’s like to actually live in Saudi Arabia,” Wald said, adding, “I don’t fault them for trying to improve their image, because everyone does that. But these campaigns are kind of falling flat.”
Neom’s official social media accounts paint a glossy portrait of the project that teases futuristic urban landscapes, technological innovation and sustainable living. Its website describes Neom as “the land of the future where the greatest minds and best talents are empowered to embody pioneering ideas and exceed boundaries in a world inspired by imagination.”
But the construction camp that’s depicted in many Neom-based content creators’ videos differs vastly from the dazzling metropolis advertised in initial renderings of the city. The buildings appear modern but sterile, with a more industrial than futuristic feel.
Aly said this disconnect is not unique to Neom. The contrast between the proposed vision and on-the-ground reality of a major development such as Neom is a known pattern among most mega-projects, including those in the United States and Europe.
“Usually the branding documents are not what’s translated on the ground, because on the ground, you are limited by your capacities at the end of the day,” Aly said. “And the vision of Neom requires a tremendous amount of money.”
The $500 billion development project, part of the crown prince’s Saudi Vision 2030 plan to diversify the country’s economy, has been surrounded by controversy.
In May, the BBC reported that Saudi forces were ordered to evict indigenous villagers — with permission to kill those who resisted, according to a Saudi ex-intelligence officer — to pave space for the construction of The Line, advertised as a car- and emission-free city in Neom expected to stretch 105 miles in one straight line.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal — citing current and former executives as well as documents, emails and recordings — reported allegations of corruption, racism and misogyny among Neom executives, including an alleged instance of one executive mocking the deaths of workers.
In 2018, the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate also stalled the promotion of Neom as Crown Prince Mohammed faced global censure and scrutiny over the incident. In many ways, according to researchers, Neom is tied to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to reshape its reputation on the global stage.
“This project is super connected to the crown prince,” Aly said. “Whatever he’s going through politically — internally and internationally — reflects on the branding of Neom.”
