Falcon29
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Egyptians Are Furious Over Corruption Videos — and Demanding Sisi “Get Out”
Twitter’s trending topics in Egypt tell you everything you need to know about the mood of the country at the moment.
“Get Out,” “The people want to overthrow the regime” and “Sisi out” topped the trending list Friday, signaling some of the most intense political pressure President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has faced since taking power in a military coup in 2013. Now, Egyptians are flocking to social media to vent their frustration with Sisi’s government, which has overseen years of corruption and financial mismanagement, to the point that the World Bank said earlier this year that some 60 percent of the population was either poor or vulnerable.
The wave of support for regime change started rising earlier this month after a series of viral videos by ex-army contractor Mohamed Ali in which he makes sweeping allegations about corruption at the highest levels of Egypt’s government and military, implicating Sisi, his wife and his son. The former military contractor, who has 15 years working alongside the military leadership, has given Egyptians an insider’s view of some of Sisi’s most controversial projects, at times offering specific figures for his allegations.
Sisi attempted to dismiss the videos last weekend, calling them “sheer lies” during comments made at a youth conference in Cairo, and he has deployed a slick propaganda campaign aimed at undercutting Ali.
It hasn’t worked. Instead, Ali, who is posting the videos from self-imposed exile in Spain, has only grown more aggressive in his push to remove Sisi from power, this week using a series of hashtags that have trended globally.
Ali is now calling for people to take to the streets across Egypt to show their opposition. But with the military historically coming down hard on any public displays of dissent during Sisi’s reign, it's unclear how many citizens will actually brave the streets.
Either way, the latest campaign puts Sisi in potentially vulnerable territory, experts said.
“One cannot deny that there is lots of anger and the Egyptian authorities seem shaken by it,” Hussein Baoumi, a human rights researcher with Amnesty International, told VICE News. ”This is evident in the way they have been responding through proactive arrest, censorship, and propaganda.”
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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-corruption-videos-and-demanding-sisi-get-out
Twitter’s trending topics in Egypt tell you everything you need to know about the mood of the country at the moment.
“Get Out,” “The people want to overthrow the regime” and “Sisi out” topped the trending list Friday, signaling some of the most intense political pressure President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has faced since taking power in a military coup in 2013. Now, Egyptians are flocking to social media to vent their frustration with Sisi’s government, which has overseen years of corruption and financial mismanagement, to the point that the World Bank said earlier this year that some 60 percent of the population was either poor or vulnerable.
The wave of support for regime change started rising earlier this month after a series of viral videos by ex-army contractor Mohamed Ali in which he makes sweeping allegations about corruption at the highest levels of Egypt’s government and military, implicating Sisi, his wife and his son. The former military contractor, who has 15 years working alongside the military leadership, has given Egyptians an insider’s view of some of Sisi’s most controversial projects, at times offering specific figures for his allegations.
Sisi attempted to dismiss the videos last weekend, calling them “sheer lies” during comments made at a youth conference in Cairo, and he has deployed a slick propaganda campaign aimed at undercutting Ali.
It hasn’t worked. Instead, Ali, who is posting the videos from self-imposed exile in Spain, has only grown more aggressive in his push to remove Sisi from power, this week using a series of hashtags that have trended globally.
Ali is now calling for people to take to the streets across Egypt to show their opposition. But with the military historically coming down hard on any public displays of dissent during Sisi’s reign, it's unclear how many citizens will actually brave the streets.
Either way, the latest campaign puts Sisi in potentially vulnerable territory, experts said.
“One cannot deny that there is lots of anger and the Egyptian authorities seem shaken by it,” Hussein Baoumi, a human rights researcher with Amnesty International, told VICE News. ”This is evident in the way they have been responding through proactive arrest, censorship, and propaganda.”
..
..
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-corruption-videos-and-demanding-sisi-get-out
