British ambassador sets off social media storm

The British ambassador in Cairo used a job posting to make a political point, setting off a Twitter storm and leading to a hashtag calling for his expulsion.

Ambassador John Casson tweeted notice of a job posting at the embassy, noting in Arabic that “We welcome everyone, including the son of a custodial worker.”

The post was a clear, and snarky, reference to Egypt’s former minister of justice, who was pushed to resign Tuesday after saying that the son of a custodial worker could not work at the Justice Ministry because judges “should hail from suitable origins for this work.”

Casson posted the tweet at 3:23 pm. Three hours later, it had been retweeted more than 1,700 times and generated pages of responses, peppered with an alternating series of angry and smiley emoticons.

Many of the responses were positive, applauding Casson for his dry sense of humor or his democratic sentiments.

Others pointed out the discrepancy between the ambassador’s statements and the United Kingdom’s stringent requirements for Egyptians applying for UK visas.

“Would you give the son of garbage collector a tourist visa though? Or the son of any other Egyptian?,” asked twitter user and Mada Cartoonist, @_Andeel_.

“For this you are asking for a bank statement to have a visa to your country, stop playing and be diplomatic,” said twitter user @egyptaccount.

Others referenced the United Kingdom’s history of imperialism in Egypt, slammed the ambassador for interference in Egypt’s internal affairs, or simply for undiplomatic behavior.

A hashtag calling for his expulsion, was one of Egypt’s top twitter trends Wednesday evening.

This isn’t the first time western diplomats in Cairo have found themselves in hot water over Twitter posts. In 2013, the US Embassy temporarily shut down its Twitter account after tweeting a clip in which comedian Jon Stewart criticized then-president Mohamed Morsi.

The presidency, via Twitter, attacked the US Embassy for engaging in “inappropriate” and “negative political propaganda.”

In 2012, the US embassy also got in trouble for tweets condemning the use of free speech to “hurt the religious beliefs of others.” The tweets referred to a controversial film, the “Innocence of Muslims,” that ignited protests outside the US embassy in Cairo. That time, the backlash came from within the United States, where many political commentators viewed the tweets as unacceptable pandering to extremists.

In the wake of protests over the film, the US Embassy also got in a spat with the Muslim Brotherhood. Using their English language account @Ikhwanweb, the Brotherhood said it was relieved that embassy staff were not harmed, and hoped the “turbulence” would not harm Egypt-US relations. 

In response, the embassy tartly tweeted: “Thanks. By the way, have you checked out your own Arabic feeds? I hope you know we read those too,” a reference to Arabic tweets in support of the demonstrations.