Snapchat’s feature of Cairo on Monday made Egyptians cringe

Snapchat once again had Arabs excited for the feature of a Middle Eastern hub, Cairo. What we didn't expect was backlash over who ended up representing the country.

DELETE THAT CAIRO SNAPCHAT LIVE STORY PLEASE!https://t.co/ueZ5kvv91o

— Escapism (@Omarmoustafaa) August 3, 2015

Egyptians were the ones most critical of the video stories that were shown on the social media app, complaining they were not very well-represented in the live feature of their home country's capital.

They are not Egyptians i swear#cairolive #cairo_live pic.twitter.com/lNNj69pQPT

— Aya (@ayoamaring) August 3, 2015

Many of them complained it was obvious the people taking the video were not originally from Egypt; rather, they were residents of Gulf countries that happened to be in Cairo when the social media giant featured the city.

#Snapchat #cairo_live you need to get assistance from an arabic person to distinguish between Saudian people and Egyptian lool

— محمـد الـmutairi (@M7mD_ALdwi5) August 3, 2015

Someone please show the world how beautiful cairo is because, currently we look like we're in a dumpster. #cairo_live

— heartofoptimism (@NadaKNegm) August 3, 2015

It's the Snapchat team who decides which live stories are featured, raising the question of how these decisions are made and what kind of audience they're catering for. While the majority of Snapchat users may have loved to see the Nile River in the first 10 seconds of the live feature, Egyptians were not so impressed.

[sees Cairo live snapchat and gets excited] Guy: ZIS EZ VERY FAMOUZ NYL REVAR [deletes snapchat]

— ☀️ (@malak_essmat) August 3, 2015

Granted not all Egyptians were disappointed; several of them liked what they saw and defended the Snapchat story.

am i the only one who likes #CairoOnSnapchat?

— Zeinab Saad (@ZeinabBentSaad) August 4, 2015

I'm in the minority, but I liked the Cairo Snapchat story. It showed my city as dirty & chaotic as it truly is not a cleaned up fake version

— Emm Kay (@emmkaff) August 4, 2015

That Cairo snapchat story makes me miss Egypt, my cousins, etc. and the zebala lol :( if they do a Beirut one, too, I'll lose my mind.

— Hatshepsut (@theironsheikha) August 4, 2015

There is one thing social media users did agree on — how awesome this lady was.

This woman is the best thing I've seen today! #CairoOnSnapchat pic.twitter.com/JQGSKIjnY8

— Ayah. (@AyahAlaa) August 4, 2015

By Hayat Norimine