Influencer Novita Lam apologises for ‘Iran’ & ‘Israel’ joke

SINGAPORE: A local content creator issued an apology after being slammed by netizens for who found her post which jokingly referred to Iran and Israel, two countries currently at war, as inappropriate.

The beauty and lifestyle influencer Novita Lam, who was born in Indonesia but lives and works in Singapore, posted a short video on her TikTok and Instagram accounts on March 3 (Tuesday), showing herself going for a jog in the Marina Bay area, with her Strava statistics showing on her screen.

“Iran this, Israel that. IRAN 10km and the pain ISREAL,” she wrote in the text overlay.

Given the far-reaching effects of the war in Iran and the seriousness of the issue in general, it did not take long for netizens to call out Ms Lam, who has 441,000 followers on Instagram and 129,600 followers on TikTok, on her post, and she quickly took the clip down on both platforms.

“No one wants to be in that situation, and she should be grateful to her very last bit, for the safety and comfort (and living the high life) in Singapore,” wrote a Reddit user.

“Poorly executed pun and massive tone deaf. Makes light of a real conflict where people are suffering and dying on both sides of the war. Turning war into wordplay for social media clout and attention shows her lack of empathy and awareness,” commented another.

“She’s lucky we are not in war,” remarked a third.

Nevertheless, by the time she removed her post, screenshots had already been taken and widely shared online.

Some TikTok users, upset with Ms Lam’s post, even took to commenting on her other videos, and comments have since been disabled on some of them.

On March 4, Ms Lam apologised via an Instagram reel.

“I would like to sincerely apologise for a story I posted earlier. It was insensitive and hurtful, especially with what is happening around the world right now.

I removed it as soon as I realised my mistake. I am truly sorry for this. I will be more mindful moving forward. Once again, I am sorry for my actions,” she wrote. /TISG

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