If it seems like things are always coming out of Saudi Arabia's YouTube and Twitter machine, it's because they are. The country has the highest number of active Twitter accounts in the Middle East. Everyday, there's a new hashtag taking off in the conservative kingdom, whether it's lamenting about another MERS outbreak unfolding in local hospitals, or Gulf countries' failure to take in literally any Syrian refugees, Saudis have a lot of opinions — at least once protected by the digital veneer of the Internet.
So it's not that surprising that when Gulf citizens got it in their heads that their governments were hatching a plan to ban the use of social media in their countries this week, they reacted with none other than a viral hashtag — حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج#, or #Twitter_banned_in_Gulf.
What's funny about this uber-meta Twitter trend in that Gulf users were never explicitly in danger of a Twitter ban, anyway.
The hashtag was born when a Saudi user tweeted about a July article about Twitter's policy on country-specific bans. Though Saudi hadn't introuced any measures like this, the piece illustrated how this could hypothetically play out in Gulf country, and gave tips on bypassing potential bans.
It wasn't backed by any real threat from Gulf governments, but it was much too late for those details, anyway — by Sunday, the hashtag had taken off.
Have a look at some of the responses below.
#حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج الإلحاد التطاول على الذات الإلهيه العصبيه القبليه الفكر الداعشي التعصب الرياضي تويتر مكان خصب لكل هذه المصائب
— يوسف الزامل/ تيماء (@AboMohnd2007) August 30, 2015Translation: Twitter became a rich place for: Insulting god, tribalism, ISIS thoughts and hooliganism.
الحجب يذكرني بالانظمة العسكرية الديكتاتورية التي داستها الشعوب بالأحذية واخذها الله اخذ عزيز مقتدر #حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج
— o_o (@o_oorno) August 30, 2015Translation: Blocking Twitter reminds me of the dictatorial military regimes who trampled their countries and then God punished them severely.
ماراح يحذفونه يعرفون اني عاطله باطله طول وقتي متقعه ف تويتر #حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج
— ود الـشـمـرانــي (@0500356) August 30, 2015Translation: They will not remove Twitter, as they know that I’m jobless and spend all my time here.
#حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج راح نفقدكم ي الخلايجه
— الدون ماجد (@nice10_) August 30, 2015
Translation: LOL, we will miss you people of Gulf.
#حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج والله هالقرار جيد لان في مغردين يستاهلون اكثر من الحجب
— نبض المقاومة (@nbd313) August 30, 2015
Translation: I think it is a good decision since there are some users who deserve more than blocking.
أتمنى ذالك ويجب إصدار هذا القرار بأسرع وقت #حجب_تويتر_بدول_الخليج
— حمود (@Hmoud33_) August 30, 2015
Translation: I wish they would do it, and quickly.
