If you follow a lot of influencer-type celebs on Instagram, you may have noticed that a lot of people have been posting snaps in Saudi Arabia recently.
The long list of celebs includes actors Armie Hammer, Ryan Phillippe, Wilmer Valderrama and Ed Westwick, as well as models like Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn and celeb-offspring-cum-influencer-cum-Kardashian-adjacent Sofia Richie.
NEW 📷 !!! @EdWestwick tonight with Mohammed Ali Turki and Armie Hammer, at the MDL Beast Festival 2019 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦… pic.twitter.com/g9JH1qfYBG
— ❤❤Sweet Edwestwick🌠 (@CooTeeTiiTaaa) December 19, 2019
Trans model Teddy Quinlivan was the first to slam the trip, posting a series of Instagram stories calling attendees “sell outs”.
Quinlivan wrote: “The Saudi Arabian government is paying influencers to positively promote travel and events in Saudi Arabia. To save face after the brutal assassination of journalist Jamal Kashoggi.
If you’re an influencer and you’re promoting tourism to a place to [sic] openly kills journalists and LGBTQ people, as well as a list of other horrible and archaic laws and policies: You’re a f**king sell out.”
Replying to Teddy’s story, fellow model and actress Emily Ratajkowski replied that she’d turned the trip down and was “waiting for someone to call it out”.
Speaking to fashion Instagram page Diet Prada after it posted about it, Emily went on to add: “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.” She later posted this statement to her own social media channels, adding that while she has “always wanted to visit Saudi Arabia”, she felt she “had to decline”.
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) December 21, 2019
Diet Prada has reported that influencers are being paid six-figure sums to promote Saudi Arabia by attending events and geotagging photos.
