Pro-Saudi hastags slam attempt to criticize royal family

CAIRO - 14 September 2017: Three hashtags that support Saudi Arabia and the royal family are trending in the kingdom Wednesday, while an anti-Saudi hashtag has been hijacked by backers of the gulf state rulers.

It all began on Tuesday when Ali Al Ahmed, a Saudi who heads the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, tweeted the hashtag #حراك_15_سبتمبر, which translates into “the mobility of Sept. 15,” originally aiming to stir anti-Saudi government tweets. It was retweeted 85 times only.

أدعو المغردين من الشعب والمغردين في كل الدول العربية الى دعم والمشاركة في #حراك_15_سبتمبر #حراك_١٥_سبتمبر حريتنا حريتكم #قطر #مصر #اليمن

— علي آل أحمد (@alialahmed) September 12, 2017

However, Saudi preacher Mohamed Al Arefe used the hashtag to create pro-government tweets, and it was retweeted more than 9,000 times.

مهما تنوعت ثقافات مجتمعنا
وتفاوتت مفاهيمنا
إلا أننا يجب أن نتوحد على أهمية حفظ الأمن وتماسك الصف
وأن لا نستجيب لدعوات كهذه#حراك_١٥_سبتمبر

— د. محمد #العريفي (@MohamadAlarefe) September 13, 2017

As of writing this story, the hashtag was used around 335,000 times. Another hashtag, #عقب_صبي_ماوقف_مع_دولته, has been trending in all Gulf states for hours to criticize Al Ahmed for going against the Saudi state.

Meanwhile, #قسما_بالله_ما_اخونك_ياوطن (I swear I will not betray my homeland), and #كلنا_سلمان_وكلنا_محمد (we are all Salman and Mohamed, referring to the Saudi king and his defense minister son) went viral worldwide and in the top trending tweets through Wednesday. More pro-Saudi hashtags were also created and were in the top trends for hours.