Singapore-based social media influencer Novita Lam has come under fire for making a pun referencing the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The influencer, who has over 400,000 Instagram followers and 125,000 TikTok followers, shared a clip of herself jogging in the Marina Bay area. In the video, she included stats on her run and captioned it: “Iran this, Israel that. IRAN 10km and the pain ISREAL,” a wordplay using the names of the two countries to highlight the intensity of her workout.
While the posts were removed by 3 March, screenshots quickly circulated online. Many users criticised Lam for being “insensitive” and lacking awareness of the serious situation, noting that Singaporeans may be affected by the conflict abroad. Some even flagged the posts on TikTok, prompting the platform to disable comments on several of her videos.
Despite the backlash, a portion of netizens considered the criticism overblown, with some creating their own country-themed puns in response.
In a follow-up Instagram story, Lam apologised for the “insensitive and hurtful” post, saying she deleted it as soon as she realised the mistake and promised to “be more mindful moving forward.”
MS News has contacted Lam for further comments.
