Pro-Morsi Twitter campaign is hijacked

An hour after Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's address on the current state of turmoil racking the nation, a Twitter account dedicated to Morsi's news began promoting a campaign backing the president using the hashtags "with_you_mr_president" and "with_you_morsi." The account also tweeted, "support demonstrations sweep through the provinces after His Excellency the President's wonderful address." In his speech, Morsi had declared a state of emergency and a curfew in the provinces around the Suez Canal. However, within minutes, the hashtag had been hijacked by the opposition and was flooded with anti-Morsi tweets. One Twitter user wrote, "I see most of those on #with_you_mr_president aren't happy with you… Mr President." Another said, "This hashtag started with a handful of Brothers and the living, breathing Egyptian people have turned on them." The hashtag comprised over 1280 tweets, most of which were satirical and of a mocking nature. They included "#with_you_mr_president and my parents thought they'd brought me up well!" and "#with_you_mr_president until you slip into the back alley with the public." The tweets also referred to other events. One read "Do you have a thin-tip Nokia charger #with_you_mr_president?" alluding to an incident when Salafist leader Sheikh Hazem Salah Abu Ismail left a protest, claiming that his telephone battery had died, rendering him incapable of communicating with his supporters. Another tweet referenced Morsi's penchant for swift policy u-turns, reading "Wait a bit. A little bit longer. Bit longer…Presidential decree cancelling the curfew and revoking the state of emergency!" Other Twitter users took the opportunity to threaten Morsi with a similar fate to former President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, toppled in 2011 following a wave of protests. These read: "#with_you_mr_president until your stepping-down speech" and "#with_you_mr_president until you're denying all charges." Other tweets were more serious, looking at Morsi's address in terms of support and opposition. One pro-Morsi Twitter user tweeted: "I believe that God is with you, Dr Morsi, and if God is on one's side, it matters not what men are also with him. Rely on God, for he is sufficient. May God strengthen your resolve and make you victorious." Another wrote: "#with_you_mr_president in all your decisions to impose order and eradicate thugs and thuggery. God preserve Egypt." Another user said, "The President's decisions shut in the eastern gates across the saboteurs' fingers" while another wrote, "I am totally and wholeheartedly pro. Balanced decisions that combine firmness and compassion; well-studied decisions, and I do not agree with those saying they came too late." Others denounced Morsi's statement that he instructed the Interior Ministry to "stand up firmly to anyone who attacks citizens' property or safety," writing "Morsi has given orders for the use of more violence against the public, and, tomorrow, when he is being tried before a court of law or the people and is asked about the victims, he will disown his words." In the same vein, one tweet read "I gave instructions. There you go then. Don't go about in court saying it wasn't me and I never said anything." Many pro- and anti-Morsi Twitter users were in agreement over their rejection of his invitation to political forces to dialogue. One person who opposes Morsi wrote, "Our experience with national dialogue does not encourage us to persist with it or accept any new invitations without clear pledges or dialogue with the one in charge and not his deputy." Novelist Alaa el-Aswani wrote, "What has Morsi said so far that was truthful so we would believe him when he calls for dialogue this time. Anyone who agrees to dialogue with Morsi before the Brotherhood's constitution is revoked is a traitor to the revolution." Activist Wael Abdel Fattah wrote: "Dialogue means being on an equal footing. It means respecting the dialogue's outcome. It means specific issues and agreeing on solutions for them. Morsi, on the other hand, thinks dialogue is a talk show." Politician and member of the dissolved parliament Amr Hamzawi wrote: "The president must declare his acceptance of the principle of constitutional amendments and commit to forming a government of national salvation and then call for dialogue. These are the only guarantees of serious dialogue and an end to anarchy." Pro-Morsi Twitter users meanwhile posted, "there is no time for dialogue and chat with thugs and saboteurs, they are behind the spilling of Egyptians' blood" and "how I wish Morsi could've topped it off with a campaign of arrests among the intelligentsia instead of dialogue." A third person proposed that the dialogue "should be in the [Saladdin] Citadel," in reference to a historical incident known as 'the Massacre in the Citadel' in which "the ruler of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha, rounded up the Mamelukes in the famous Cairo citadel and slaughtered them."