Green Whale: Egypt’s charitable alternative for Blue Whale game

CAIRO – 10 April 2018: Egyptian writer Ghada Abdel Aal launched the Green Whale game, which requires players to go through daily charitable challenges,countering the effects of the horrifyingly dangerous game, the Blue Whale.

Abdel Aal has turned the suicide game into a number of charitable challenges in Green Whale, in order to destroy the panic sparked by the deadly game.

The game assigns 30 charitable acts that need to be completed before Ramadan, varying from helping a person to cross the street, to feeding animals, making children happy, raising funds to save a woman debtor from going to prison and visiting orphanages.

She added that after every challenge the player should prove what he/she achieved through a video or a photo, hoping that this game would spread among children instead of the other deadly game.


Egyptian writer Ghada Abdel Aal-Official Facebook Page

The Blue Whale Challenge requires players to go through 50 dangerous and soul-destroying tasks over the course of 50 days. The tasks begin with self-harm, leading up to the final challenge, which is committing suicide by hanging or jumping off a high building.

It has led to a number of suicides across the world, including that of former Egyptian MP Hamdy al-Fakharany’s son, who is believed to have been manipulated into committing suicide.

VKontakte, a Russian-based online social media and networking service that is available in several languages, has been used as an entry point to the game; someone creates small groups specifically to organize players for the game.

Within the groups, the group administrator assigns daily tasks to members and gives them strict instructions on how to play the game. One of those instructions is that participants can't discuss the game with anyone. The horrific tasks include self-harm, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours, but these gradually become more extreme.

In this regard, Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, the Sunni Islamic institute concerned with Fatwa (Islamic Law) issuance, has religiously forbidden playing the Blue Whale game, as it pushes people to commit suicide.

This dangerous game has claimed the life of many teenagers around the world. The rules of the game require players to go through 50 dangerous and soul-destroying tasks over the course of 50 days. The tasks begin with self-harm, leading up to the final challenge, which is suicide by hanging or jumping off a high building.

In its new fatwa, Dar al-Ifta clarified the reasons for banning this deadly game, mentioning that the player commits illegal actions.

“The users are asked to cut themselves with a sharp weapon such as a needle or a knife, and this act is religiously forbidden. The preservation of a person’s life is one of the most important purposes in Islam,” the fatwa read.

In Russia, two teens committed suicide after they played the game. The game’s founder, 22-year-old Philipp Budeikin, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison over charges of “inciting children to commit suicide” in July 2017, Moscow Times reported.

To save teens from the suicide game, Brazil invented the Pink Whale Challenge, featuring challenges that lean towards kindness and loving oneself. It has 50 challenges, like the Blue Whale, aiming to encourage positive and generous acts and attempts to bring happiness in the players' daily life.