Between October 4 and 10, 2024, the phrase "Ras El Hekma" was used approximately 15,000 times on the X platform. Accounts that express opposition to the Egyptian government dominated the list of the most interacted-with posts under the hashtag. Among these were accounts of public figures such as Egyptian actor Amr Waked, and "Mekameleen" TV presenters Osama Gaweesh and Mohamed Nasser, both of whom are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

An analysis of the top 50 posts—ranked by engagement—about "Ras El Hekma" on X between October 4 and 10, 2024, revealed that opposition posts garnered more interaction than those in support of the project. Upon reviewing the content of these posts, we identified that some opposition posts contained misleading information about the project, which contributed to their wider circulation and increased engagement.

For example, accounts classified as "opposed to the Egyptian government" or "supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood" shared images of the Ras El Hekma on Google Maps, falsely claiming that the area had officially become part of the UAE. Additionally, other accounts circulated an image of a sign reading "The United Arab Emirates Welcomes You," falsely claiming it was located in the Ras El Hekma region of Egypt.

An analysis of posts that included the map revealed that Egyptian actor Amr Waked (@amrwaked) was the first to share the false map of Ras El Hekma on X, claiming that the city had become part of the UAE.

Amr Waked posted the tweet on October 5, 2024, at 7:01 PM Cairo time, garnering 6,473 interactions, including likes, shares, and comments. The post reached approximately seven million users and was shared by around 1,080 accounts on X.

Five minutes later, Waked's post spread to Facebook and was shared on several accounts belonging to individuals whose posts suggest they oppose the current Egyptian government.

Ten minutes after the initial post, Dr. Mostafa Gaweesh (@drmgaweesh) shared the map on X at 7:23 PM Cairo time, mentioning that it was copied from a post by his friend Mohamed Fouad Awad.

What is the truth behind the "Ras El Hekma" map circulating on social media?

 

We searched for the Ras El Hekma area using various Arabic and English phrases on Google Maps, but the phrase "State of UAE" did not appear in any of the searches. Earlier, fact-checking platform "Matsada’sh" reported that its team, while searching for "Ra's al Hikmah" on the morning of Sunday, October 6, 2024, found that the phrase "State of UAE" was not present, even though it had been displayed until the evening of the previous day.

Arabi Facts Hub reached out to Google to clarify the situation. Marwa Khost Jarkas from Google Middle East's communications team informed us that what appeared under the name Ras El Hekma was a comment submitted as a rating by an individual on Google Maps, and this comment showed up as a description tag under the location's name. She stated, "What is shown in the screenshot is not a change in the name of the location; it is a rating that was added, and typically ratings appear automatically under the location tag."

She added, "This comment was part of business ratings on Google Maps. This feature allows users to rate businesses, restaurants, and more to help others use the maps more effectively. Given the context of this rating and because it did not align with the location tag itself, we removed it."

Jarkas explained that the Google Maps team had previously stopped the display of this rating on the maps earlier this month (October 2024) to avoid any confusion.

#Ras_El_Hekma_Project Between Support and Opposition

The vast majority of posts containing the hashtag "Ras El Hekma Project" were in support of or promoting the project (97%), while only 3% of the posts were opposed to it.

 

According to an analysis of the top ten supportive tweets that included the phrase "Ras El Hekma Project," Emirati accounts ranked first and second in terms of engagement. The first was the account of Emirati media personality Abdullah bin Dfna, whose post received 2,456 interactions, while the second was the account of Emirati influencer Ebrahim Behzad, whose tweet garnered 1,584 interactions.

 

 

In third place was a tweet about the project shared by Egyptian channel ONTV, which is owned by United Media Services. ONTV’s tweet garnered 1,481 interactions.

Despite the significant increase in supportive posts during the mentioned time period, the most engagement came from an opposition post, which contributed to the spread of the misinformation it contained. Among this misinformation was an image of a sign reading "The United Arab Emirates Welcomes You," with some accounts falsely claiming that the sign was located on the road to Ras El Hekma.

The account @mohandesbasha3 was the first to post the image of the sign, claiming it was located on the grounds of the Ras El Hekma project. This post was made on October 5, 2024, at 8:22 PM Cairo time. The tweet reached 5,368 users on X and had 3,527 interactions, including likes, replies, and shares. Additionally, it was shared by 784 users between October 5 and 10, 2024.

From reviewing its content, it is evident that the @mohandesbasha3 account is fake. The profile picture used by the account is that of American actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The account was created nearly two years ago, in July 2022. Despite the relatively short time frame, the account has posted around 27,000 tweets. The high number of posts is due to the account repeatedly sharing the same tweet multiple times in short intervals. We found several tweets supporting the Muslim Brotherhood at different times, along with other posts opposing the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The account uses a cover photo of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi (who was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood).

On October 6, several accounts worked to amplify engagement with the image of the sign, spreading it widely. An account named @amranane2 posted the same image using identical text originally shared by @mohandesbasha3 at 8:01 PM Cairo time, but it received minimal engagement. Between 8:00 and 9:00 PM, the same account (@amranane2) continued to share the post by commenting on other users’ tweets, including a post by Mohamed Nasser, a presenter at Mekameleen TV, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The @amranane2 account uses an anarchist symbol as its profile picture. It was created in June 2019, and has published approximately 51,000 tweets to date.

Two accounts that were created around the same time also participated in spreading the sign. One account, @Ibrahim54338619, joined X in August 2024, while the other, @hendosman148156, was created in September 2024. Both accounts copied the post from @mohandesbasha3, along with the alleged image of the sign, and shared it in the comments of various posts belonging to figures perceived as opposing the Egyptian government. Despite being new accounts, both had posted a significant number of tweets in a short time. The @hendosman148156 account has posted 647 tweets so far, while @Ibrahim54338619 has posted 178 tweets. Both accounts do not have profile pictures or any personal information. Their activity mainly focuses on resharing posts from opposition figures and influencers on X.

The Truth Behind the Sign Image

According to a previous report by the Matsada’sh fact-checking team, the image of the sign reading "The United Arab Emirates Welcomes You" was actually taken at the UAE - Saudi Arabia border and has no connection to the Ras El Hekma area.

The image was first posted on social media on September 19, 2024, by Egyptian content creator Tony Latif on his Instagram account. Following the spread of the misleading post, Latif clarified in a follow-up post that he had taken the picture during a road trip from Egypt to the UAE.

Partnership or Sale?

According to the Egyptian State Information Service, on February 23, 2024, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly oversaw the signing of the largest direct investment deal, a partnership between the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, represented by the New Urban Communities Authority, and Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company from the UAE. The deal is aimed at developing the city of Ras El Hekma on Egypt's northwestern coast.

In response to questions from a journalist about the deal, Madbouly emphasized that this project is not a sale of assets but rather a partnership, in which the state receives an initial payment and will share profits with the developer over the duration of the project.

#Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization: A Coordinated Campaign

Despite the Egyptian government's assurances regarding there being a partnership between Egyptian and Emirati entities in the Ras El Hekma project, some accounts adopted a narrative suggesting that the state is selling its assets to the UAE in an aim to escape its economic crisis, which has necessitated multiple devaluations of the Egyptian pound between 2022 and 2024.

The hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization began trending on X on the evening of October 4, 2024.

Through the analysis of posts published on that day under the hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization, it was found that both Osama Gaweesh's account @osgaweesh, – a journalist at the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated “Mekameleen” Channel – and an account belonging to an individual named Mohamed Abdel Rahman @mohamed041979 were the first to post this hashtag at exactly 7:55 PM on the same day. By tracking the accounts that were active that day under the hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization, we observed unusual activity from several unknown accounts that participated in posting, resharing, and commenting multiple times within short timeframes to promote the narrative of "the sale of the city of Ras El Hekma."

The Launch: October 4, 2024

We tracked the top ten accounts in terms of activity under the hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization. It became evident that there were connections among them regarding their posting methods, interactions, and a focus on resharing specific posts.

One account named @SayedKhatt88486 displayed unusual activity on October 4, 2024; within just seven minutes (from 1:59 AM to 2:06 AM), it reposted 35 tweets, most of which were from Osama Gaweesh and the Mekameleen channel.

Similarly, another account named @ZAramagon was active between 9:08 PM and 9:09 PM, reposting 18 tweets within just one minute, including several from journalist Osama Gaweesh and the Mekameleen channel. This pattern suggests that the account may be automated.

 

By monitoring and tracking the interactions of the most active accounts using the hashtag, we identified connections among them in resharing specific posts from Osama Gaweesh, a journalist from the Mekameleen channel affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and his father, Dr. Mustafa Gaweesh. They also shared posts from unknown accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, such as the account "Campaign to Reach Your Voice" @Wasal_Sotak2.

Tracking the activity of these accounts indicates that they were either anonymous or impersonating fictitious identities. Eight out of the ten accounts we monitored used generic images, either of landscapes, flowers, or drawings.
The activity of these accounts primarily focused on resharing posts from public figures or accounts with a large following, which identified themselves as "opposing the Egyptian regime."
Most of these accounts were created between 2019 and 2023 and had a small number of followers; nevertheless, they published a significant number of posts.

Peak Activity: October 5, 2024

The hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization reached its peak activity on X on October 5, 2024, when it was used 6,744 times. According to Meltwater, only 16% of the tweets under this hashtag were original, while the majority consisted of replies and retweets, which is a sign of inauthentic activity.

Upon analyzing the retweets containing the hashtag, we detected unusual activity from several accounts, including one named @SayedKhatt88486, which retweeted 88 tweets under #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization, with 82 of those retweets occurring between 08:04 AM and 08:47 AM, at an average rate of four to eight tweets per minute.

This account, created in November 2023, does not have a profile picture and uses a generic image. Since its creation, it has published approximately 7,500 posts, mostly retweets. Another newly created account, @bwnwa57714, which was established in August 2024, retweeted 27 tweets and wrote eight comments using the hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization between 12:16 AM and 01:16 AM.

 

Among the posts retweeted by this account was one by Dr. Mostafa Gawish, which included false information claiming that "Ras El Hekma was sold to the UAE." The tweet also featured a map of Ras El Hekma and a photo of a sign reading "The United Arab Emirates welcomes you."

This account also does not have a profile picture or cover image. Despite its recent creation, it has been highly active, posting 2,938 tweets in just two months, most of which were retweets of other accounts. An analysis of the network of accounts active under the hashtag #Ras_El_Hekma_Illegitimate_Authorization revealed that most were newly created, anonymous, and some appeared to be automated. These accounts posted a large number of tweets in a short period, primarily focused on retweeting and sharing content from public figures or accounts with large followings, which expressed opposition to the Egyptian government.