Rome becomes the setting for an urban safari for foreign influencers

A flurry of kicks and punches, a fierce brawl in a Metro A carriage, whilst the passengers – stunned and horrified – are divided between those trying to extricate themselves from the scene of the brawl to seek safety and those attempting, instead, to calm the heated tempers. At a certain point, it is no longer even clear what the point of the brawl is, what sparked it, or who the opposing sides and combatants are. There are even rumours that pepper spray was used, with all the easily foreseeable consequences in such a cramped space. Hours later, video clips began circulating on social media, and it became clear that the incident was the result of an intervention by a British collective, Dje Media, against a gang of pickpockets.

Dje Media is an organisation which, like many other security-focused influencers, has shifted its focus from showing raw scenes of urban hardship and decay to direct interventions against alleged criminals. Initially established as a ‘cop auditing’ collective – that is, filming police officers in action, often with the aim of critically highlighting their protocols, attitudes and behaviour – the collective has gradually altered its mission. The video was also reposted by Simone Cicalone, in what appears to be a clever and strategic move, useful both for showing just how much the underground is a no-man’s-land and for highlighting the difference in content between these groups and his own content, which is now decidedly more institutional and removed from the underground. The lads at Dje Media are not the first foreign security content creators to arrive in Rome, and this should be a cause for concern. Because in the Anglo-American world, the approach to content creation and dealing with pickpockets, con artists and muggers is far more aggressive and often violent. Brawls, fistfights, the use of coloured liquids sprayed to mark suspects, and pepper spray are part of everyday life. Video documentation is merely an afterthought, and viewers of their content always expect things to escalate. And if Rome is perceived as a potential goldmine of content, we can be quite sure we’re in for a major problem – on top of muggers, harassers, pickpockets, three-card monte players and bell-ringers who fleece unwary tourists at the foot of monuments. The real issue is that a video raising awareness among audiences – both Italian and foreign – in a city with Rome’s universal appeal to tourists about the potential dangers is a useful and, in its own way, valuable idea. Not least because, as we can say without fear of contradiction, some tourists, upon arriving in Rome, almost give the impression of having become Alice in Wonderland. It is another matter entirely, however, if the content creators themselves become a source of insecurity and potential violence. Rome had, after all, already been visited by the American Tyler Oliveira, another safety-focused YouTuber – this time from the US – famous for his borderline content and for surrounding himself with bodyguards who don’t exactly mince their words. In Rome, as the description of his video states, he “was attacked by unauthorised street vendors” whilst filming a vlog at the foot of the Colosseum. In the video, the content creator did not refrain from adopting provocative behaviour.

Just a few weeks ago, another content creator, Guardian of Rome – who is of Iranian origin and has made a number of videos with Cicalone – was severely beaten near the Trevi Fountain. A pattern is therefore beginning to emerge, and not a particularly positive one: the growing aggression of gangs of pickpockets and con artists ends up attracting those influencers who are constantly on the lookout for sensational content and are always on the verge of getting caught up in street violence. The issue, however, is not about reinforcing the ban on filming in the underground, not least because many of these incidents take place on the streets, at monuments and in squares. The answer is to make it clear – and visible – that the state is present.