Popular hashtags take sides on Egypt president’s leadership
CAIRO — Tens of thousands of Egyptians have set social media alight with tweets on opposing hashtags, one calling on President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to resign and another praising his leadership.
The hashtags have been on Twitter’s top trending list in Egypt for days, but by Saturday the one calling on el-Sissi to leave office carried some 279,000 tweets. The opposing hashtag had a much lower figure of more than 48,000.
The two surfaced after a recent wave of steep price hikes for fuel, drinking water and electricity was introduced by the government as part of austerity measures designed to overhaul the economy, which is still recovering from a costly 2011 popular uprising.
Frustration deepened last week after Egypt’s national soccer team, competing in the World Cup for the first time since 1990, failed to advance after only two matches. The hashtags have picked up since.