Mike Babayan was in a hookah lounge when he heard the explosion on Saturday night. Dubai – a gilded playground for the ultra-rich and oligarch class, billed as one of the safest places on Earth – had been attacked by Iranian missiles. Phones lit up with emergency messages urging residents to take shelter. But Dubai is resilient, at least when it comes to partying. “Everyone just went back to their hookah and food a minute later,” said Babayan.
As a precaution, that night Babayan moved from his main home in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, to a residence further from the city centre. There, he could hear the explosions much clearer – one every 20 to 30 minutes, he said. “But everyone is just having coffees, walking around like there’s no care in the world. It’s pretty insane.”
Babayan, 23, originally from Los Angeles, moved to Dubai in 2020 to work in finance. He now documents his life as a day-trader and flexes the trappings of influencer life to his nearly 150,000 TikTok followers. Over the weekend, he shifted his focus to commentating on the strikes in the direct-to-camera style typical of influencers. He felt a responsibility to combat misinformation; when he saw an AI-generated video of the Burj Khalifa burning, he told his followers it was fake.
But he couldn’t resist showing off a little, too. In one clip, Babayan said he felt that Dubai remained safer than New York, Los Angeles and London, even amid the war. Where else, he asked, could he walk around at night wearing his $60,000 watch undisturbed? “I feel like that’s more important, not having to look over my shoulder every two seconds, compared to the chances of a drone hitting me, which I feel is not as likely,” he said.
Iran began targeting neighbouring Gulf states with missiles and drones in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks that have killed more than 700 Iranians, including 168 people at a girls’ elementary school, according to Iranian state media. Caught by surprise, influencers living in Dubai responded by flooding the information void with scenes from a life of luxury interrupted by war. Will Bailey, a British travel influencer with nearly 500,000 followers, witnessed the missiles fall from his perch at a beach club. The DJ did not stop playing thumping beats as Bailey and others posted videos of themselves staring at the nearby Fairmont The Palm hotel engulfed in smoke.
Dr Sreya Mitra, an associate professor of mass communication at the American University of Sharjah who studies south Asian influencers based in Dubai, said Indian social media influencers are trying to counteract and factcheck the hyperbole of Indian news channels. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, it’s 2am and I’m here in the Ramadan market or downtown Dubai, and it’s safe.’” The UAE has reported three deaths and 68 injuries since the war started, according to Al Jazeera. The UAE said it destroyed or intercepted most of the missiles and drones launched at it by Iran; the Fairmont hotel and airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi sustained damage.
