Portfolio

Maya-Nora Saaid

Maya-Nora Saaid is a journalist and social media producer with a passion for researching social issues, culture, historical events, politics and more in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

She started her journey on TikTok in 2020 after the tragic Beirut explosion. Her goal was to create short explainers on historical and political affairs that would help people understand and make up their own minds on these affairs.

Saaid's first video about the political system in Lebanon after the British left, quickly gained popularity and went viral, garnering 288k views. After that, she became more passionate about using her platform to shed light on important issues that were overlooked or misrepresented by Western mainstream media.

One of the most notable examples of her work is when she discovered that Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, did not recognise the time in Palestine, but did recognise the time in Israel. Saaid created a video asking Siri the time in both regions, and later made a more in-depth video. Both videos went viral, with over 2 million views. This work was groundbreaking as it highlighted an overlooked issue that many people may not have realised before.

Unfortunately, her boldness led her to get blocked from TikTok. However, a few weeks later, Siri was able to recognise both times, and Saaid's account was reinstated thanks to the media.

Saaid is a strong advocate for the power of social media as a tool for change, and her work continues to make an impact in the MENA region and beyond through her work at Middle East Eye.

Lovie Awards: Video Series or Channel (2022)

Described as "the most prestigious and the only, truly pan-European awards", Lovie aims to recognise the "unique and resonant nature" of the European Internet community.

Middle East Eye (MEE) was nominated in the video series/channel in the news and politics category.

Drum Awards: Social Media of the Year (2023)

Middle East Eye (MEE) started publishing content on TikTok in November 2021. After eight months, the account had 16,600 followers. MEE has more than doubled its TikTok followers over the next two months, from 16,600 to 34,800.

By the end of December 2022, a number of 171,200 followers had been reached, a tenfold increase in five months. This rapid growth makes MEE one of the fastest growing news platforms on TikTok between May 2022 and January 2023, surpassing the likes of the London Evening Standard and BBC News.

Palestine Explainers

Can't read Dutch? Open URL via Google Chrome - right mouse click and translate the page to English.

Maya-Nora Saaid researches, writes her own scripts, edits and publishes the video.

Saaid has knowledge of social media algorithms, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and UGC (user-generated content).

She has grown the Middle East Eye TikTok account under a year to over 140k followers and over 3 million likes without paid ads.

*Disclaimer: View and engagement data for TikTok in 2022 is partial

and only goes back to mid-July - the real numbers may be slightly higher