The best hashtag on Twitter tonight is #BrusselsLockdown. Following on the heels of last week’s deadly Paris attacks, police in Belgium have been conducting operations in two major cities to arrest terror suspects linked to the attacks. Because of the extent and sensitive nature of the operations, the authorities asked residents to refrain from tweeting observations that could help the suspects identify and elude the police. The response of the Belgians, and then people from many other countries who joined them, has been nothing short of amazing: They flooded the identified hashtag with cat pictures!
xTerrorist 0-1 Belgium #brusselslockdown great night in brussels on twitter :) pic.twitter.com/gsswHZ19M0
— Kamil Dkm (@DkmKamil) November 23, 2015 xBelgians Are Supporting The #BrusselsLockdown By Tweeting Cute Cat Pics https://t.co/0l9MlZWNtR via @stephemcneal@buzzfeednews
— PlanetPOV.com (@PlanetPOV) November 23, 2015Cute pooties aside, this is a very serious operation. From the BBC liveblog, here’s a summary of what’s known so far:
00:27 Belgian police carred out 22 anti-terror raids - 19 raids in the Brussels area and three more in Charleroi 16 people were arrested - none were named by police Salah Abdeslam, suspected Paris assailant, remains at large - unconfirmed Belgian media reports said he was spotted by police in Liege but managed to escape in a BMW No weapons or explosives were found during the raids Police fired two shots at a car that approached a roadblock during an operation in the Molenbeek district of Brussels - the wounded driver was later arrested Brussels remains on the highest state of alert A judge will decide tomorrow whether those arrested will be kept in custody.Imnsho opinion, this is one of the best things about the Internet. It’s brought people together and shows us a way to respond to terrorism with courage, humanity, and humor instead of fear and xenophobia. Not only was the “radio silence” respected, but the flooding of the hashtag rendered it useless to the terrorists (unless they like pooties and other critters — who knows, maybe some of cuteness will get to them?). All snark and LOLspeak aside, I’m glad I had a chance, even though I came late to it, to see Twitter at its best and participate with a few retweets of my own.
The Belgium police also thanked the twitter users:
Belgian prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt thanked social media users for heeding a police request not to share information about ongoing anti-terror operations, to avoid tipping off suspects.
When police issued the request on Sunday, social media users responded in style by tweeting thousands of cat pictures instead, flooding the #BrusselsLockdown hashtag.
Speaking at a press conference earlier, Mr Van Der Sypt said police "want to thank the press and social media users because they took the need of this operation into account".
The above quote is also from the BBC liveblog, which notes that the lockdown alert has been extended into Monday. Best wishes to the people of Belgium — may you stay safe & strong as this unfolds. And your pooties, woozles, and other critters, too.