Subhi Taha
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Subhi Taha | |
|---|---|
| Occupations | fashion designer, content creator |
| Instagram information | |
| Pages | |
| Years active | Until 2025 |
| Followers | 1.6 million (03 Aug 2024) |
| TikTok information | |
| Page | |
| Followers | 858.7 thousand |
| X information | |
| Handle | |
| Display name | Subhi صبحي |
| Followers | 120.2 thousand |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Subscribers | 270 thousand |
| Last updated: 31 Jul 2026 | |
Subhi Taha, formerly known as Sbeih.jpg on Instagram, is a Palestinian-Filipino-American fashion designer and content creator. He gained attention for his content about being Muslim and Arab American. His YouTube channel was nominated for a 2019 Shorty Award in the Breakout YouTuber category. His Instagram account @sbeih.jpg contained pro-Palestine content and had 1.6 million followers in August 3, 2024. Meta, the owner of Instagram, disabled the account in March 2025.
Biography
[edit]Taha is a Palestinian and Filipino Muslim from Dallas, Texas.[1][2][3] A fashion designer,[1] he released a line of unisex, modest clothing.[4][5][6]
Additionally, he is a content creator.[7][8] He gained attention with his videos about being Muslim and Arab American.[9][3][10] In one TikTok video called "When your Arabic is mostly conversational & religious", he pretends to be interviewed for an Arabic-speaking flight attendant job and is asked to make an in-flight announcement. He uses a mix of Muslim religious phrases, Arabic body language, Palestinian dialect, emojis, and English subtitles to parody a second-generation immigrant's Arabic language skills.[11] Scholar Francesco L. Sinatora analyzed the video as an example of using comedy and multiple languages to promote Arab-American identity and challenge "post–September 11 discourse of marginalization grounded in English monolingualism".[11] In another TikTok, he spoke about the thick, warm "immigrant blankets" popular in Arab culture.[12] By July 2025, he had 829,000 TikTok followers.[13]
In 2017 and 2018, Taha was selected for the YouTube Creators for Change initiative,[2][14] which provided logistical and financial support for creators to make videos advocating for social causes.[15][16][10] For the program, he created "Thread of Connection: A Palestinian Story", a video about his family friends who are Palestinian refugees.[17][18] Taha's video "Just Say It", urging his viewers to advocate for social change, was called "effective" and "beautifully composed".[10] In 2019, his YouTube channel was nominated for a Shorty Award in the Breakout YouTuber category.[19][20][21] His YouTube channel was captioned: "just an average Muslim-American". By 2021, he had 250,000 subscribers.[12]
Taha's now-suspended Instagram account, @sbeih.jpg, featured video posts that were typically about 2 minutes long in English with occasional Arabic words.[22][23] His account promoted Palestinian culture and identity with imagery like keffiyehs, dabke dancers, and Palestinian flags.[22][9] One post with 29,000 likes showed him at the Dome of the Rock with the caption "ya’ll … i [sic] made it home."[9] He also posted about Palestinian history and current events, utilizing hashtags like #istandwithpalestine and asking his followers to participate in pro-Palestine activism.[22][24][23] According to scholar Sema Üstün Külünk, Taha's translation of Arabic-language content made Palestinian culture and narratives more accessible to a non-Palestinian audience.[23] From Taha's Instagram account he linked to his website called Palestine Academy with further information about Palestinian history and culture.[22][23]
Taha made posts stating that Israel is a settler colonial state attempting to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their indigenous land.[22][1] After the October 7 attacks, Taha made a post arguing that Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli occupation and that anyone who disagrees is a "colonizer".[22][1] It was viewed 12.3 million times and shared 81.2 thousand times.[1] Israeli journalist Shir Reuven criticized the post as "woke" and setting up a false dichotomy between Palestinians and Israelis.[1] Scholar Zainab Saeed El-Mansi wrote that Sbeih.jpg is continuing "the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle across colonial borders" and challenging "the hegemonic Western and Zionist colonial digital and media narratives."[22] El-Mansi identified Sbeih.jpg as part of the post-2010 generation of Palestinians[22] which Raja Khalidi called a "younger, radical, and impatient generation".[25] Posts from Taha were included as evidence in a University of Essex investigation of several students associated with the Palestine Solidarity Society.[26][27]
As of November 2023, @sbeih.jpg had 1.6 million followers.[1][23] A 2024 paper about the impact of social media on political discourse identified the account as a "Top Opinion Leader" on Instagram.[28] The account was banned by Meta in March 2025.[29][13][30]
Awards and nominations
[edit]| Year | Awards | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Shorty Awards | Breakout YouTuber | Nominated | [21] |
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Reuven, Shir (November 7, 2023). "מדינת ישראל ניצבת מול אויב חסר תקדים: אפרוחי ה-woke" [The State of Israel is facing an unprecedented enemy: the woke chicks]. The Marker (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on December 10, 2024. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- 1 2 Lapowsky, Issie (October 31, 2018). "Inside YouTube's Push to Counter Toxic Videos With 'Good' Creators". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 19, 2026.
- 1 2 ""I'm a Muslim Palestinian-Filipino, born and raised in Texas, who loves to share the richness of my faith..."". Instagram. May 11, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2026.
- ↑ Khan, Aysha (October 5, 2018). "At long last, Muslim high fashion catapults into the mainstream". RNS. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ "SUBHITAHA — a Faith-Inspired, Unisex, Modestwear Line – Fashion Maniac". fashionmaniac.com. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ Monsen, Lauren (October 21, 2021). "Makers of modest clothes find a niche in U.S. fashion". ShareAmerica. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ Barylo, William (2025). "I Was Just Following the Trend: Art of the Oppressed or Oppressive Culture?". British Muslims in the Neoliberal Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0198924944.
- ↑ "Nas Daily slammed for 'both sides' take on Israel-Palestine". The New Arab. October 6, 2022. Archived from the original on January 17, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Dana, Karam (February 2025). "Palestinians in the American Imagination". To Stand with Palestine: Transnational Resistance and Political Evolution in the United States. Columbia University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-231-54652-2.
- 1 2 3 Signorelli, Paul (January 15, 2021). "BROADCASTS AND PODCASTS". Change the World Using Social Media. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 98, 101–102. ISBN 979-8-7651-7035-9.
- 1 2 L. Sinatora, Francesco (March 2025). ""When you put 'fluent in Arabic' on your résumé": Translingual parodies on TikTok and Arab transnational identities". Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics. 3 (1): 66–89. doi:10.3366/arabic.2025.0041. ISSN 2755-1911.
- 1 2 "'Like a Warm Hug From an Angel'". New York Times. February 26, 2021. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- 1 2 Bana, Nabila (July 2025). "What we owe the feed, the follower, and the journalist: a philosophy of video journalism" (PDF). Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
- ↑ Grigonis, Hillary K. (May 8, 2018). "YouTube helps creatives tackle tough topics, from hate speech to extremism". Digital Trends. Retrieved August 2, 2026.
- ↑ Rowsome, Alice (July 5, 2017). "YouTube Activists School Their Followers on Major Social Issues". VICE. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ "YouTube touts social impact initiative at VidCon as community aims to make a difference". NBC News. June 24, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ Hasson, Peter J. (February 4, 2020). "One Nation under Google". The Manipulators: Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Big Tech's War on Conservatives. Simon and Schuster. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-1-62157-966-3.
- ↑ Subhi Al-Biddawy صبحي البدّاوي (November 12, 2018). Thread of Connection: A Palestinian Story | #CreatorsForChange. Retrieved July 31, 2026 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "Subhi Taha". Shorty Awards. Archived from the original on March 20, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2026.
- ↑ Rosario, Alexandra Del (January 28, 2019). "Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Weezer & More Land 2019 Shorty Awards Nominations". Billboard. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- 1 2 "Michelle Obama, Noah Centineo, Marie Kondo, John Mulaney Win 2019 Shorty Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. May 5, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 El-Mansi, Zainab Saeed (December 1, 2024). "'Siyada Asliya Falastiniya' in the Digital Narratives of "PreOccupation Podcast" and "Sbeih.jpg"". Cairo Studies in English. 2024 (2): 8–27. doi:10.21608/cse.2024.320962.1189. ISSN 0575-1624.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Külünk, Sema Üstün (February 6, 2024). "Gaza speaks through translation: The politics of language on Palestinian social media". Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. 39 (4): 564–565 – via EBSCO.
- ↑ Salam, Erum (May 13, 2021). "'It's different this time': Palestinian Americans find support in US progressives". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
- ↑ Khalidi, Raja (August 1, 2016). "Twenty-First Century Palestinian Development Studies". Journal of Palestine Studies. 45 (4): 7–15. doi:10.1525/jps.2016.45.4.7. ISSN 0377-919X.
- ↑ "UK: Pro-Palestine students face expulsion for sharing Middle East Eye posts". Middle East Eye. March 12, 2025. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
- ↑ Prinsley, Jane (August 14, 2024). "University Palestine Society mourns Haniyeh's death with red triangles and calls for resistance". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
- ↑ Ho-Chun Herbert Chang; Shaman, Benjamin; Chen, Yung-chun; Zha, Mingyue; Noh, Sean; Wei, Chiyu; Weener, Tracy; Magee, Maya (2024). "Generative Memesis: AI Mediates Political Memes in the 2024 USA Presidential Election". arXiv:2411.00934 [cs.CY].
- ↑ "Manufacturing consent: How youth are used to push normalization at diplomatic events". Middle East Monitor. March 7, 2025. Retrieved November 9, 2025.
- ↑ Weat The Peace. "wearthepeace". www.instagram.com. Retrieved March 7, 2025.
Palestinian activist Subhi, who many know him by his handle Sbeih.jpg, has now been suspended off Instagram indefinitely from both his main account and his backup account.