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German travel bloggers and YouTubers travel to war and crisis zones such as Afghanistan and Syria. How full screen-Research shows that propaganda by the regimes also finds its way into the videos and posts of influencers.
Contrary to every travel warning, more and more influencers, content creators and travel bloggers are embarking on dangerous journeys – to autocratically ruled countries or war and crisis zones such as Syria or Afghanistan. The influencers want to tell authentic stories without taking a political stance.
research of SWR-Investigative format full screen but now show that influencers glorify the situation on site in their videos, reproduce state propaganda without reflection or conceal serious violations of human rights. This creates a distorted picture of the actual situation on the ground. This can be problematic because, according to a study by the Reuters Institute, young people now prefer to get information from posts by famous influencers than from traditional news channels.
Taliban propaganda on YouTube
The full screen-Redaktion comes across a German travel blogger with tens of thousands of followers on YouTube. At the end of 2022 he traveled to Afghanistan for four weeks, which has been under the control of the radical Islamic Taliban again since 2021. Twelve and a half hours of video footage often show him at the bazaar in Kandahar or chatting with vendors in Kabul.
In one video, he even wears a Taliban flag pin, and in another, he lets Taliban members speak openly into his camera to spread state propaganda through his YouTube channel. The blogger then repeated the slogans addressed to his followers: “Please accept Afghanistan as a country and let it become part of the international community. As you can see, the people are nice and friendly here.”
The German travel influencer thus becomes the mouthpiece for Taliban propaganda. In the full screeninterview, he justifies himself: “I have so little material where the Taliban said anything at all. I just wanted to show what they mean.”
The Taliban, which the influencer describes as so peaceful, are responsible for the deaths of countless people, including Bundeswehr soldiers. The Taliban are currently depriving women and girls of all their rights in the country. Theresa Bergmann from Amnesty International speaks of “an unprecedented human rights catastrophe”.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls from the seventh grade have no access to education. Women are only allowed to leave the house unaccompanied by a man in exceptional cases and are sometimes forced into marriage with supporters of the Taliban. The Federal Foreign Office warns against traveling to Afghanistan. The German embassy in Kabul is closed, consular support is not possible on site.
Travel agency as an extension of the regime
While it is mainly individual travelers who are currently making their way to Afghanistan, a striking number of international agencies are offering trips to Syria. Although the Federal Foreign Office continues to warn against entering Syria, the civil war country has been issuing tourist visas again since 2019. Since then, posts and videos from travel influencers who travel the country with agencies and guides have increased.
A trip to Syria is only possible with local guides and organized by a travel agency. The research shows that tourists are encouraged not to make critical statements about the regime and the autocratic ruler Bashar al-Assad in the country. Only the areas of the country controlled by Assad are visited.
full screen In an undercover investigation, found out that a German travel agency is working with a local guide close to the regime who apparently has family ties to the Assad regime. Show videos of other content creators: This guide reproduces slogans of the Assad regime in the videos of travel bloggers.
Food tour through the war zone
Two German food influencers also traveled to Syria in early 2023, including to the war-torn cities of Aleppo and Homs. Two local guides stayed with the influencers.
Not a word of criticism can be heard from the two German bloggers. They eat their way through a country where two-thirds of the population is at risk of starvation, according to the human rights organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. You compare Damascus to cities like Cairo or Marrakech. In a video, one of them jokes: “I’ve been to afterhours, which were more dangerous.”
Syria is still considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Luise Amtsberg from B90/Die Grünen, the federal government’s human rights commissioner, emphasized this when asked: “To this day, the Syrian regime commits the most serious human rights violations against the Syrian population on a daily basis.” These include attacks on the civilian population with chemical weapons, sexualised violence, arbitrary and unlawful detention, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and killings of detainees.
The two food bloggers almost exclusively show the positive sides of the countries they travel to. On request from full screen they refuse an interview, even in writing they do not answer the questions of the editors.
Social media propaganda – strategy of the regime
Omissions, but especially false statements and cooperation with agencies and tour guides close to the regime, play into the hands of the autocrats. “Behind this, of course, is a strategy of the regime,” says Oliver Zöllner, a media ethicist at the Stuttgart Media University.
“Even if there is no deal, the deal is simply that I go there and then make an ostensibly non-political contribution about the good food or the peaceful life on the streets.” In this way, the concerns of the respective regime are indirectly supported, according to Zöllner.