Kuwait: Could a Hash Tag Send Twitter Users to Prison?
As in any country with netizens using Twitter, hash tags are created every day, every hour and some times even every few minutes. In Kuwait, one user created a hash tag #بطارية (battery in Arabic) and all hell broke loose.
Some Twitter users are claiming that a writer is responsible for the hash tag, with many circulating a screen shot of the tweet, which many felt insulted the country's ruler, and which is no longer available in the writer's timeline.
The ‘insult’ arose because the Emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, is said to have had a pacemaker, which is operated by a battery.
Meanwhile, the concerned writer Mohammed AlAjmi, doesn't deny or confirm starting it and posts tweets like [ar]:
and:
While many thought of the original battery tweet as an insult to the Emir of Kuwait, a crime punishable by Kuwaiti law, the hash-tag quickly become popular among a very small minority of users who seemed to agree with the message. Meanwhile, the majority of Twitter users turned the incident into a witch hunt, calling for the imprisonment of those who dared insult the ruler.
Abdullwahab AlEssa, a television presenter, tweeted:
AbdulAziz AlYahya, a lawyer and CEO of a private television channel, added:
Husain AlAbdullah, another lawyer and a journalist, wrote:
Finally, Hamad AlNaqi, who defines himself as a member of Amnesty International and a defender of Bahraini people, said:
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