Dubai's influencers have a new rule: Don't mention the war

As missiles and drones began lighting up the sky over Dubai, many of the city's social media personalities became citizen journalists.

Regular programming about abs, real estate and cryptocurrency was replaced with frantic updates on Iran's latest attacks.

"That was metres away from us. Look at this," Will Bailey told his 130,000 Instagram followers in one video filmed from a beach club on the opening day of the war.

It shows plumes of smoke billowing from a nearby building.

"That is the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai. Oh my God."

Bailey, a British fitness influencer and online coach, shared several reels in the subsequent days and also gave interviews to Western media outlets. He only moved to Dubai in February.

"The reason I'm so panicky … there's a lot of people who are not taking it seriously," he complained in one interview with radio station LBC.

As the week wore on, something changed. The missiles and drones kept coming. The videos, however, stopped.

Bailey has ceased posting altogether, but some other influencers in the region have begun uploading gushing tributes to the United Arab Emirates's government and military.

Now, many people in the country and elsewhere are suspicious about censorship.

About 90 per cent of the UAE's population are expats, and over the past three decades the country has built a reputation as a luxurious, sun-drenched tax haven bursting with business opportunities.

Generous, sponsorship-free visa schemes make it a popular base among content creators.

For cashed-up Westerners, life in its glittering cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi is good, so long as they make a few authoritarian adjustments.

Portraits of billionaire hereditary rulers — known as sheikhs — adorn the interiors of many buildings. Homosexuality is punishable by death. Alcohol is tolerated, but public drunkenness is not.

The UAE is strict but safe. Or at least it was, before the war started.

Videos thanking sheikhs 'very cringe'

So far, Iran has fired more than 1,000 missiles and drones at its Gulf neighbour, the vast majority of which have been shot down by air-defence systems.

But with every bang in the skies, anxieties on the ground grow.

Traditional media is heavily regulated in the UAE, but these days everyone — not just journalists — has been put on notice.

After the war erupted, authorities announced that people who shared misinformation or even something that "results in inciting panic among people" could be prosecuted. Only officially verified information is safe to post.

This tough, arbitrary edict effectively means the country's government gets to decide what is and is not true.

For example, one video filmed on Saturday clearly shows an Iranian drone crashing into a building at Dubai Airport. However, actually saying that is risky because authorities say it was debris from an interception.

Now, the viral clips that once showed attacks are largely gone. Instead, some influencers are pumping out patriotic messages and thanking the government.

An update published by state media in the UAE remarked how quickly the Fairmont Hotel had reopened after "a fire" (there was no mention of the drone that hit it).

The country's leader, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has been on a PR blitz too, visiting hospitals and shopping in public — something seldom seen pre-war.

Analysts argue this is a coordinated attempt to swamp the details of the unpredictable reality — such as airport queues and emergency sirens — with a more flattering narrative.

In one trend being questioned, scores of social media personalities have been posting slow-motion clips of the sheikhs accompanied by text like "we know who protects us".

"It's very cringe. While I wouldn't personally call it propaganda, it's definitely a PR campaign," one Australian man, who fled Dubai with his family last week, told the ABC.

"Having said that, I think many people there have confidence in the government. The government is highly competent, and it does deliver.

The UAE is not the only Gulf state clamping down on residents who post online.

In nearby Qatar — which has also been a target of Iran's — police have detained at least 313 people for "filming and circulating videos, spreading rumours and publishing misleading information" related to the war.

Kuwait's government has completely banned the publication of anything related to the fighting.

Got a problem? The Happiness Ministry is here to help

Monitoring social media by authorities is not new in the region.

Insta-famous real estate agent Olesya Gavilova, who says she has lived in the UAE for more than two decades, received a summons from police in December last year over one of her videos, which has since been deleted.

She posted again, thanking the officers for their politeness and reminding people that if they were in Dubai and had a gripe, they were welcome to take it to the government's Happiness Ministry (which is actually a real thing).

"That's why the UAE works," she wrote in the blurb accompanying her clip. "Less noise, more order, and everyone knows where to take their problems."

UAE state media this week ran a video of Australian real estate agent Jessica Stephens going on a scathing social media rant about the Australian government's attempts to evacuate its citizens from Dubai.

Some planes contained swathes of empty seats, prompting Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite to say the government was "disappointed".

"We want to stay. We don't want to come back to Australia and give half of our money away, and pay your taxes," Ms Stephens said.

"Stop acting like you're trying to help us and get us all home because we don't want to come home, and that's the real truth."

So far, four people have been killed in the UAE due to Iran's attacks. But the country's reputation as a safe haven has also been a major casualty.

"If it's not perceived as that, it's a huge and potentially existential problem for Dubai, which relies on tourism, real estate and aviation," the Australian man who left said.

"Not being safe threatens all three of those."

Influencers who live in the UAE require government permits. None has admitted to being paid to spread the patriotic messages.

They've been the butt of multiple jokes online this week, and they're easy targets. But behind the punchlines, there are growing questions about the extent to which this cohort — and their vast audiences — could be being harnessed to spread official messages.

More than a week into the fighting, many people have fled the UAE.

"My major concern was that the country would run out of interceptors," the Australian man who left told the ABC from Perth this week.

While that is something several experts say is a possibility, many residents have decided to stay. For now, life goes on, despite the dangers

"Been to the gym this morning. BBQ this afternoon," a text from a friend in Dubai read at the weekend. "Just another day in paradise."