This is part of a series of investigative reports published in collaboration with Daraj media

Arabi Facts Hub 16.11.2022

Demands for the release of prominent blogger and political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah escalated as he declared a full hunger strike that lasted for about a week. This coincided with the United Nations climate summit (COP 27) that was held in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh with broad international participation. This comes after the blogger/programmer spent close to a decade in prison. In parallel, a massive campaign emerged defending the government's position, promoting the narrative that Alaa is accused of criminal and not political offenses.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Arabi Facts Hub (AFH) is a specialized research project that utilizes software to support Arab fact-checking platforms. This includes establishing a unified technical standard database that aggregates content from fact-checking platforms electronically. This enables wide-ranging search and analysis tools. The project aims to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques into its framework. Additionally, the project provides services, such as the "Eye on Twitter" reports, utilizing technological tools to track and identify sources of misinformation campaigns and hashtags associated with misleading news on social media. "Daraj" publishes this report in partnership with AFH.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Demands for the release of prominent blogger and political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah escalated as he declared a full hunger strike that lasted for about a week. This coincided with the United Nations climate summit (COP 27) that was held in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh with broad international participation. This comes after the blogger/programmer spent close to a decade in prison. In parallel, a massive campaign emerged defending the government's position, promoting the narrative that Alaa is accused of criminal and not political offenses.

In December 2021, the State Security Court in Egypt sentenced Alaa Abdel Fattah to five years in prison on charges of "spreading false news" after he reposted a tweet about deteriorating conditions in Egyptian prisons. Abdel Fattah eventually announced the end of his hunger strike in a letter to his family, following increased international pressure for his release. Alaa’s story is a case in point for understanding how campaigns targeting influential individuals unfold.

How did the campaign against Alaa Abdel Fattah begin and what were its reverberations?

Arabi Facts Hub lays out the story from the beginning.

The parallel campaign coincided with efforts by Alaa’s family to attract international attention to his case during the climate summit and to push for his release, considering he holds British citizenship acquired from his mother, Laila Soueif, who was born in Britain.

The campaign brought together a mix of government supporters. This included newspapers, journalists, biased groups who support the state’s narrative on various issues, nationalist enthusiasts for an Egyptian Pharaonic identity who call themselves "Kemets," and anti-refugee, anti-immigrant campaigners. The campaign's discourse focused on labeling Alaa Abdel Fattah a "terrorist". It relied on misleading information and an old video showing Alaa during a dispute between revolution supporters and the then ruling military council after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in the January 25, 2011 uprising.

Arabi Facts Hub, has documented the campaign's activity, analyzed its interactions, and highlighted its key influencers and nature of published content.

What happened?

On November 6, Alaa Abdelfattah escalated his hunger strike, which he had started in April, to a complete fast. Until then, he had been consuming only 100 calories from tea and milk. He then stopped drinking water. This coincided with the organization of the climate summit in Egypt. Alaa's full fast raised concerns about his life, leading to calls on social media and from international officials to quickly release him. The Egyptian government considered this an unacceptable insult.

In early November, negative comments about Alaa's strike were few, repetitive, and often dominated by mockery, perhaps because government supporters were focused on attacking calls for protests on November 11 and expressing support for the police. However, as Alaa's stance gained more momentum during the climate summit, the campaign became more organized. A wave of hashtags supporting the government's position emerged, urging against his release even if that results in his death, according to the content of some tweets.

The previous tweet is by Bassam El Masri or Bassam Bakheet, the manager of a plastics factory in the eastern Ain Shams suburb of Cairo. He is known for launching online campaigns in support of government policies and presidential decisions. He was featured in a previous Arabi Facts Hub analysis.

Subsequently, the hashtag #Alaa_AbdelFattah_is_a_traitor_and_agent regained activity after Mona Seif, Alaa's sister, announced his intention to go on a full hunger strike with the start of the climate summit on November 6. The hashtag first appeared on August 30 in a tweet by a person named Taher El Harazi in response to a tweet by Mona, in which she said, “What would happen, Egypt, if you give us back our brother and we end things between us at that?!”

Harazi, who claims to be a member of the Nation’s Future party in Cairo, adds the number 8 next to his name, possibly indicating that this may be his eighth account. Accounts involved in such online campaigns often use numbers to signify that they may have had previous Twitter accounts which were closed, perhaps in an attempt to gain trust among active groups in those campaigns.

Until November 10, this hashtag garnered 1841 tweets, 3817 retweets, and 9675 likes.

Statistics from SNA – InVID indicate that the account of @_Col_Ahmed_Army, who claims to be a former officer in the Egyptian Air Force, was the most active on the hashtag with 124 tweets

The former officer had previously lost an account, seemingly closed by Twitter due to its use in inauthentic online campaigns. This prompted him to create his current account on October 21, where he had posted over 2300 tweets in just 20 days. This is an exceptionally high rate compared to the average pace of spontaneous tweeting. The account has around 400 followers, most of whom display the Egyptian flag in their profiles.

The hashtag’s most widely shared tweets with the most interactions were associated with a conference that was held on the sidelines of the climate summit and attended by Alaa’'s sister, Sanaa Seif, who accompanied the British delegation to the summit. These tweets emphasized a verbal altercation that took place between Sanaa and Egyptian parliamentarian Amr Darwish. Darwish is also a member of the pro-government Coordination Committee of Party Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP).

The tweet with the highest interaction came from the account @shimaa3060, created in November 2015. It posted photos that seem to have been taken discreetly, depicting discussions among some conference organizers who are supportive of Alaa Abdel Fattah's stance. Shimaa boasted, "The shots we took – for some traitors – are all authentic, and when we decide to share, we share." However, some criticized capturing conference attendees without their consent.

But who is Shimaa?

Shimaa owns a Facebook account under the name Shimaa Rafat, from the city of Mansoura in northern Egypt, and she has a page called "Beta’et Asnan", meaning dentist. Shimaa is one of the administrators of at least two Facebook groups: "Qalb Al Watan" (Heart of the Nation) with 31,000 members and another called "El Dawlageya" (the Statists), with around 12,000 members.

In 2016, the administrators of "El Dawlageya" started a closed group called the "Union of State Supporters," associated with Ibrahim El Garhy, known in recent years for leading and organizing online campaigns against the opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Shimaa has another Twitter account with a similar name. When we searched for her first account handle, we found another account. Shimaa uses both accounts to amplify the messages she wants to promote or participate in during online campaigns. 

We also found out that she is a member of the "Egyptian Alliance for Social Media News" when we came across a post by someone praising several members, including "Shimaa Beta’et Asnan," who played a prominent role in online campaigns over the past years, describing these individuals as "Egyptian media ambassadors for decent Egyptian citizens."

The group, which features the climate summit logo, has over 27,000 members and publishes 255 posts daily. It serves as a rallying point for online campaigns originating from Facebook and spreading to other platforms like Twitter. For instance, we found a post by Amani Abdel Aziz, whose account was listed among the "ambassadors". Amani’s account invited group members to participate in a hashtag that emerged during the summit titled #TheWorldRespectsEgypt. A subsequent post by the account of television channel "Sada El Balad," claimed that the hashtag was trending on Twitter.

Like any other social media user, Amani's use of her accounts varies. She is part of online campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. On Youtube and TikTok, she tends to share photos and videos showcasing places she visits in Egypt. She more or less has connections to circles that are close to the presidency. In April of last year, Amani received an invitation to attend the Egyptian Family Iftar with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Her friend Shaimaa Rafat congratulated her on receiving the invitation, which she shared at the time. Amani also posted a TikTok video saying she had already attended.

From "Enough with the Darkness of Military Rule" to attending the president's iftar and riding the trend; What is the story of the Social Media News Alliance?

At the top of the "Ambassadors List" was the name of Islam Abbas, presented as the founder of the "Egyptian Alliance for Social Media News." He is described as an international lawyer and lecturer.

In late 2020, the Egyptian Alliance was founded, claiming to be "an alliance of influential national social media pages aimed at addressing the lies and rumors of the false Muslim Brotherhood media platforms, which aim to harm Egypt and other Arab countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, both of which I have great respect and appreciation for," as Islam Abbas states in the registration form to join the alliance.

Born in Alexandria, Islam worked in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, until mid-2011, and returned to Egypt in August of the same year. He has visited Qatar and the UAE. Like Amani Abdelaziz, Abbas was invited by the presidency to attend the Egyptian Family Iftar.

In a Facebook post, Islam, Amani, and others appeared during the events of the World Youth Forum held in January. The post was shared by an account named Hossam Hassan, who introduced himself as a member of the alliance and a military engineer, having completed the National Security and Strategic Planning course at the Nasser Military Academy

Interactions on the "Egyptian Alliance" group reveal Islam's role in coordinating and distributing tasks, much like what Ibrahim El Garhy does in managing the "Union of State Supporters" (about 100,000 members), which is part of dozens of "national" groups listed in the "Egyptian Alliance." See the post below.

In a statement to the website Parliament Gateway, given in January 2021, Islam revealed the organizational structure of the alliance and the nature of leadership roles, “... for instance, on the political front, we have a representative from the alliance, counselor Islam Abbas, who speaks and creates visual content... in tourism promotion... there is a representative managing this file, Ms. Amani Abdelaziz, an Egyptian YouTuber with views exceeding one and a half million… In addition, the alliance's social media platforms vary, for example, we have a talk show that is presented by the announcer Seif Mahmoud in Sada El Balad, as well as the 'Marker' page, one of the pages participating in the alliance... There are also influential personal pages such as the page of Dr. Shaimaa Rafat (with 48 thousand followers on her page Beta’et Asnan) and the page of Professor Tamer Raouf. Finally, for internal management, coordination, and writing articles for the alliance, there is Professor Maysa Nasr and Professor Yasmine Geweily."

The activities of the Egyptian Social Media News Alliance are not limited to within Egypt. They alliance has previously organized limited protests outside the country, one of which took place in front of the European Parliament to "condemn Erdogan's crimes." Jacqueline Saad, secretary of the American Coptic Authority, plays a role in the alliance’s activities abroad.

As the campaign against the call for the release of Alaa Abdelfattah gained momentum, Islam Abbas proudly announced on his Facebook page that he was "riding the trend."

Participants in the campaign attacking Alaa Abdelfattah extensively used past statements by Alaa, especially those made during the events of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. It was striking that many pages and accounts shared old tweets of Alaa Abdelfattah to justify the government's decision not to release him. Some of these old tweets by Alaa criticized the government and the then ruling military council following the departure of Hosni Mubarak. These were statements that Alaa later re-evaluated, explaining why he believes some of them were "illusions".

Interestingly, when we went back to what Islam Abbas wrote on Facebook between 2011 and 2012, we found that he wrote posts that may resemble what Alaa was saying at that time. One post condemned the rule of the military council, calling for its departure so that we can "put behind us 60 years of Egypt's history of disgusting shame" according to Islam.

On the same note, Twitter users reshared a news article published by the "Al Bawaba" website in 2016 about Amr Darwish, the parliamentarian who clashed with Sanaa Seif during the climate summit. The article included a photo of a Freedom and Justice Party ID card attributed to Darwish. The Freedom and Justice Party is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now classified as a terrorist group in Egypt. Darwish later held the position of secretary of the Nation’s Future Party in Qalyubia, which party is close to the ruling authorities in Egypt.

The same is true for Mahmoud Badr, who was counted among the forces of the 2011 uprising, then founded the “Tamaord” (Rebel) movement against the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, before turning to the unequivocal support of the current Egyptian president.

Diplomatic scolding, tweets in English… Nationalists and anti immigrant groups, and Egyptians abroad

Nationalist pages and those opposed to the presence of refugees and immigrants in Egypt were among the active groups rejecting the demands for the release of Alaa Abdel Fattah. Additionally, some in the Egyptian diaspora who typically express support for the government and criticize its opponents were also part of this movement.

One such page is "Egypt’s Awareness," which boasts 54,000 followers on Facebook. The page not only reposted Alaa Abdel Fattah's previous tweets but also accompanied them with a disapproving statement: "They want to release him." It characterized the calls for Alaa's release as "blatant interference," asserting that "these organizations and defenders are nothing but people with twisted motives that care about anything but human rights."

On Twitter, Egypt’s Awareness shared an accompanying translation of an audio clip featuring Alaa speaking.

The page maintains various accounts on social networks and emphasizes the visual presentation of its content. Its followers often use Pharaonic symbols, symbolizing ancient Egyptian civilization. It is also part of an online campaign against the presence of refugees in Egypt and a member of a coalition of 10 nationalist pages and groups on Facebook and other social networks. The page claims to work on "raising awareness" and countering "international ideas that aim to destroy nations" while "consolidating the Egyptian identity, loyalty to the Egyptian state, its civilization, heritage, and correcting all misconceptions."

Participants in the campaign against Alaa Abdel Fattah used various hashtags in both Arabic and English, including #No_to_the_Release_of_Alaa_AbdelFattah, #No_to_Pardoning_Alaa_AbdelFattah, #Alaa_Abdel_Fattah_is_a_criminal, and #dont_free_Alaa.

Of those tweeting on the #dont_free_Alaa hashtag, is Egyptian expatriate in Eindoven, Netherlands, David El Masry, who works in the field of information technology. He tweeted 52 times using the hashtag. Another tweep who identifies himself as John El Masry, also participated on the hashtag. Both individuals, who interacted collaboratively, manage different accounts endorsing government positions. John El Masry owns a media company in the Netherlands and produces higher-quality content.

The hashtag #dont_free_Alaa garnered 498 tweets and 3,140 likes. David El Masry was one of the most active accounts using this hashtag, while the account @sherinhelal555 received the most interactions to her tweets on the hashtag.

Sherine Helal is a member of the Egyptian Alliance who tweets on the alliance’s promoted hashtag #TheWorldRespectsEgypt. Interactions with Sherine suggest that she endorses conspiracy theories. She previously published a novel titled "The Kenyan Seal." Amid the controversy surrounding Alaa's strike, Sherine invoked the story of Irish activist Bobby Sands, who died in prison after a hunger strike, questioning why the UK did not respect human rights at that time. This was in a post on her Facebook page. She also commended what she characterized as "diplomatic scolding" in reference to Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry's response to a question regarding Alaa's situation during an interview with CNBC.

“Copy and paste... Retweet and circulate on Twitter."

The hashtag #BritainSupportsTerrorism became active on Twitter. It was launched by Bassem (Bakheet) El Masry, the owner of a plastics factory in Ain Shams, who is known for launching such online campaigns. Bassem's initial tweet, posted early on November 9 at 3:29 AM, included only the hashtag and a laughing emoji without further explanation. 10 minutes later, he posted another tweet in Arabic explaining the meaning of the hashtag to accounts in his circles, urging them to "copy and paste", "retweet and circulate" the tweet.

The hashtag appeared a few hours after the verbal confrontation between Sanaa Seif and parliamentarian Amr Darwish which took place on Tuesday on the sidelines of the climate summit COP 27. The controversy escalated on Twitter and on media channels in the evening. This is perhaps the reason behind the quick launch of the hashtag early on Wednesday. The heat map from SNA – InVID for periods of activity on the hashtag shows that it was highly active at 4 AM on Wednesday, then there was another surge in activity from 4 PM to 11 PM on the same day.

According to Gephi, the hashtag was shared by 1,625 accounts, with strong interconnections among them.. The total number of tweets exceeded 17,000, distributed among 4,689 tweets, 13,630 retweets, and 30,728 likes. Bassem El Masry's share of these interactions was at least one-third.

In addition to activity on the hashtag by Sherin Helal and the Egypt Awareness page, other accounts that are typically active in other campaigns also participated. This includes Ashraf Galal (@ClosedHeart20), who was active in previous campaigns attacking Yusuf Al Qaradawi after his death.

Duplicated content in English was also used to amplify the hashtag, published by an account named Abu Hashem Alhashemy @Abohashem2222.

Bassam El Masry also participated in activating another hashtag, #Alaa_terrorist, tweeting in English on the hashtag. Among Bassam's tweets on this hashtag was a tweet commenting on the results of the US Congressional elections, showing optimism and welcoming a Republican victory. Another tweet featured an image of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak next to a cow. Sunak participated in the climate summit, and his government asked Egypt to release Alaa Abdel Fattah.

Hate speech and misleading information

Cyberbullying and hate speech against the family of the late lawyer and human rights advocate Ahmed Seif took center stage as part of the online campaign against Alaa Abdel Fattah. Some tweets contained photos of Alaa's mother, Leila Soueif, a professor of mathematics at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University, ridiculing her appearance, and similarly attacking Mona and Sanaa Seif. The same was repeated with Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, as an angry photo of her circulated depicting a confrontation between her and Amr Darwish while Sanaa Seif was on a panel in the conference.

Misleading information about Alaa Abdel Fattah also circulated, in an attempt to portray him as a "terrorist" accused in criminal cases, despite the fact that the charge for which he was sentenced to 5 years in prison was "spreading false news" after he reposted a blog post about the prison situation during the "COVID-19" pandemic.

“Let's launch a campaign against her and create a hashtag"... Who initiates electronic campaigns?”

Our analysis of highlighted individuals who could be termed "whistleblowers," who signal the start of a campaign. One prominent example is Bassem El Masry, who only kicks off the campaign and interacts for a limited period of time. This is confirmed by our analysis, which shows that Bassem is able to garner substantial interaction with his tweets, but he does not take the lead among the most active tweeps in the campaign, as this does not seem to be his role. Similar patterns were observed with Amani Abdelaziz, leader in the Egyptian Alliance for Social Media, whose role was more geared towards highlighting errors and focusing attention on something specific while rallying support for a certain position, as she did in the hashtag #TheWorldRespectsEgypt

A third category are ordinary individuals who can openly propose launching a smear or trolling campaign against a public figure. An illustrative example is depicted in the image below, showing a response by “Farida” to Mohamed El Dayasti, a "journalist" associated with Al Bawaba website, known for his engagement in online campaigns supporting the government and advocating for its policies. El Dayasti expressed his discontent with Lebanese journalist Liliane Dawood's comments on the Egyptian situation through her Twitter account. Simultaneously, the spontaneous reaction from "Farida" offers insight into how “online committees” operate in Egypt, providing a glimpse into the dynamics that help explain things if you encounter a somewhat peculiar hashtag targeting a well-known personality.

In summary:

• Pro-government groups collectively participated in the campaign against the demand for Alaa Abdel Fattah's release. Some of these groups were led by individuals close to the Egyptian president's inner circle, such as Islam Abbas. 
• The attack was less intense in the beginning but it gained momentum systematically as discussions increased about Alaa's hunger strike against the backdrop of the climate summit. 
• Groups known for their hostility towards foreigners and refugees in Egypt participated in various coalitions in the campaign. 
• English-language hashtags were used in an aim at defaming Alaa's family as they urged the British government to intervene for his release.
• Hate speech and misleading information were prevalent in the campaign. 
• The effort during the campaign was highly coordinated and organized, in synd with the unfolding events.

Tools used:

- InVID Verification Plugin

- Twitter Search

- Gephi

- Crowd Tangle

- Netlytic