Australian content creator Chloe Baradinsky is facing another wave of scrutiny after ABC’s Media Watch and online commentators reignited claims about her travels in Afghanistan — specifically whether her trip, which included a $600 discount from her tour company, was funded or “gifted” by the Taliban.
Recently, podcastsBig Small Talk and Just The Gist speculated that Chloe’s trip was sponsored, while many TikTokers criticised her for “promoting” Afghanistan as a travel destination with ongoing bans on women’s freedoms.
Media Watch accusations against Chloe Baradinsky
The storm kicked back off when Media Watch questioned the ethics of Western influencers visiting Afghanistan, highlighting Baradinsky’s posts from Kabul and Band-e-Amir National Park and linking her trip to a larger pattern of “Taliban tourism”.
The segment alleged that letting foreign tourists showcase the country’s more scenic side risked whitewashing severe abuse, especially against women, under the Taliban regime. It also revealed that Chloe’s travel company had waived around one-fifth of her package costs — a detail that some argued should have been disclosed to her audience.
Chloe responds: “not sponsored, never requested a discount”
In a new TikTok posted from an airplane bathroom, Chloe called out the relentless coverage and described feeling let down by the tone of media questions she received after her interview with Media Watch.
“I feel like it’s beating a dead horse and I’m so over it. People will say what they want regardless,” she started the seven minute and 36 second video.
She explained that several tour companies offered discounts after discovering her online profile, but insists she paid for the trip using her own savings.
“I never once said, ‘Hey, I’m an influencer, can I get a discount?’ I’m going to travel to these places regardless, so I don’t really give a fuck about a discount in all honesty. I use my own savings. I used to fucking be a corporate slave — I’ve got savings to spend on these trips.”
She continued, “I ended up giving so much money in cash tips to the tour guide and to the driver. So I actually ended up overpaying, even if I had received that discount.”
Baradinsky also pushed back on the narrative that creator travel is uniquely problematic.
“Every country offers discounts to journalists and influencers. Journalists on ABC or PEDESTRIAN.TV go on free media trips too.
“So like to try to paint me in one way and then they’re like, ‘Oh, should you disclose this to your audience?’ I’m like, disclose what? That I overpaid?”
PEDESTRIAN.TV can confirm that we have disclosed all free media trips in our respective coverage.
Baradinsky also provided a written statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV before posting the above video, in which she explained her side of the story:
“Afghanistan was entirely my decision. Yes, after I decided to make the trip, the tour company offered what was a relatively small discount on their package — which my tour guides more than earned back in cash tips,” she wrote.
“In the end, I actually spent more than the full price, all out of my own pocket. I know mainstream media has grown up in a world of freebies and junkets, but that’s not my world.
“Visiting Afghanistan as part of a two month trip wasn’t any type of sponsored content — or whatever you guys call it — it was just me living my life, travelling where I choose, telling the stories I want to tell, taking the risks I want to take, and paying my own way. That’s something I would strongly recommend to anyone, and for clarity no-one is paying me to say that.”
Chloe rose to fame on TikTok by documenting her life in the corporate world, but has transitioned into lifestyle and travel content. (Image: Chloe Baradinsky / Instagram)
How does tourism affect everyday Afghans?
The bigger issue for many observers is how influencer travel to Afghanistan might affect — or misrepresent — real life for people under Taliban control.
Afghan journalist and activist Roya Musawisays such content can inadvertently serve as PR for the regime. “The foreign tourists and influencers who are travelling to Afghanistan and showing Afghanistan as a haven to the world because the Taliban regime uses them as their free public relations who advertise and whitewash their radical regime which banned basic human rights like access to education to women and girls there,” she told told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“These tourists are showing the superficial or the historical places which are given access by the Taliban and they are not showing the reality of the society that how many women lose their lives because of lack of female doctors or other human rights violations happening under the Taliban rule.
“The Afghan women are not happy with what tourists are showing to the world. They are frustrated that these foreigners also ignore the sorrow of Afghan women. None of these tourists show how many women are being flogged in public spaces in different provinces of Afghanistan.”
Asked what she’d like Western audiences to know, Musawi adds, “The reality is hidden behind the radical regime of the Taliban… the content coming from [influencer] creators is misleading and puts the audiences in a crossway about who to trust — the content of these creators… or the voice of women’s rights activists who are shouting every day.”
The Taliban has enforced a range of rules and edicts that restrict the human rights of women and girls, including their ability to move freely within Afghanistan.(Photo by Elise Blanchard/Getty Images)
Disclosure, consumer law and ACCC guidance
With discount arrangements in the spotlight, Australia’s consumer watchdog weighed in. “Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) businesses, including influencers, should not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct,” an ACCC spokesperson told P.TV.
“Misleading or deceptive conduct can include the making of false statements or the omission of key information which may impact consumers’ decisions.
“Influencers that do not disclose the existence of a commercial relationship are at risk of contravening the ACL and misleading consumers. Misleading or deceptive advertising within influencer marketing and online reviews is a current priority area for the ACCC.”
Chloe says she plans to post her detailed trip costs “when everything dies down”. There’s no suggestion Chloe is being investigated by the ACCC. She has also previously denied allegations that she misrepresented life for people in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Baradinsky recently deleted a TikTok in which she said she was selling clothes at Glebe Market to cover unspecified “legal fees”, and she hasn’t posted further clarification since.
The debate continues — some defend her desire to travel and share stories, others question the ethics and impact of promoting travel within oppressive regimes. The costs, risks and responsibilities for creators remain firmly in the spotlight.
