How an Egyptian's spoof to 'free Smeda' overtook a civil rights campaign

Published October 28th, 2015 - 01:45 GMT
An Egyptian on Monday set out to make a satirical hashtag the top trend in the country — and he succeeded. (Twitter)
An Egyptian on Monday set out to make a satirical hashtag the top trend in the country — and he succeeded. (Twitter)

Smeda may not be real, but his infamy on Twitter was a major obstacle social media activists had to face in their campaign to free military prisoners Tuesday.

Smeda's legacy started with a series of tweets using the hashtag on Monday.

Smeda completed his third year in prison despite his minor crime killing three people in an armed robbery. 

Smeda, you were the smile when the world was dark. You always change our lives when you enter the scene with your onion sack and your sugar cane.

Other people quickly followed Mustafa al-Ansari's lead.

We demand to replace the eagle on the flag with Smeda's picture. Smeda, the patriot man who offered his soul for his own country.
 
So the ultimate question is: Who is Smeda, and what does he represent?
 
As we reported earlier, #FreeSmeda became a trending spoof on the social media campaign #FreeAlaa to release civil rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah from prison. Smeda, of course, is fictional, a hypothetical comical character in Egypt. Here's a video of this so-called Smeda. 
 

Here's the tweet that explains it all.

Tomorrow I will start the hashtag #FreeSmeda and make it among the top trending hashtags in Egypt. I will build a case out of nothing. 

The #FreeAlaa campaign started on midnight Tuesday, and one hour later it was the top trend in the country, according to Zeyad Salem.

Only hours later, #FreeAlaa was overtaken by the parody.

And the face-off continues. On Wednesday morning #FreeAlaa was back on the trending list. But #FreeSmeda in the past day had slightly more tweets. 

It's unclear what the guy's motivation behind the tweet was, and whether he's a Sisi supporter. Regardless, people were quick to pick up his cause — even if the cause didn't exist. 

By Hayat Norimine

Tags:TwitterAlaa Abdel FattahMustafa al-Ansari
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