DUBAI, Wednesday. When Iran’s missile and drone attacks struck earlier this year, residents of the UAE turned to social media, not to complain, but to publicly declare their confidence in their country’s safety. That response, according to Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed, chairwoman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, was driven by genuine loyalty, not financial incentive.
Sheikha Latifa made the assertion at the Arab Media Summit, where she addressed questions about trust, public sentiment, and the flow of information during times of crisis. Her remarks spoke directly to what ordinary residents experienced and why they responded the way they did.
The Iranian attacks began on February 28. In their aftermath, some residents shared positive accounts of life in the UAE and defended the country publicly. That response drew scrutiny from international media, particularly in the UK, where journalists questioned whether influencers based in Dubai had been paid to project an optimistic picture during the conflict.
Sheikha Latifa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, addressed those allegations directly. “People who defended and supported the UAE didn’t do it for payment but because of their love of the UAE,” she said. “People were proud of their country and its path.”
She framed that public confidence as the natural outcome of a relationship built over time between residents and their government. The foundation, she argued, is the consistent delivery of services and security that make people feel genuinely invested in where they live. “Anyone working in Dubai’s government sector understands that the emirate’s leadership has set a clear objective, ensuring the happiness, comfort and security of everyone living in the city,” she explained. “When all entities and systems work to serve the human, it makes the human trust the country, the leaders and the government.”
Trust, in other words, is not manufactured in a crisis. It accumulates through sustained, everyday experience of governance that works.
By contrast, the information environment in which that trust must now survive has become far more volatile. Sheikha Latifa noted that the democratization of content creation has made it easier for anyone to publish material, but that same accessibility has complicated efforts to ensure accurate information reaches the public. “Anyone can create content or publish news,” she said. “Reaching information and the audience is easier.”
Speed, though, is not the same as credibility. “Technology allows people to produce content within seconds, but trust cannot be built in seconds,” Sheikha Latifa said. That gap, between how fast information spreads and how slowly trust is earned, sits at the heart of the challenge facing cities and public institutions today.
She raised particular concern about younger populations across the Arab region. With 55 percent of people under age 30 navigating a rapidly shifting information landscape, the risk that misinformation spreads as quickly as verified reporting is not abstract. It is a daily reality for a generation that has grown up with both the benefits and the hazards of open content distribution.
The broader question her remarks leave open is whether the model she described, where consistent public service builds the kind of loyalty that holds during a crisis, can be replicated or scaled as the information environment grows more fragmented. “Great cities can attract people by making them genuine partners in building their future,” she said. “In Dubai, we learnt to work with good intentions, and trust will make the achievement last.”
Whether that lesson translates across the wider Arab media landscape, where institutions and audiences are navigating the same technological pressures with very different resources, remains to be seen.