Thread by @marcowenjones

[Thread] 1/6 This one is on a large level cyber-bullying/harassment. A few days ago a trend targeting the Alhathloul family was trending in Saudi.

Tweets like that below, which targeted @LoujainHathloul's siblings things like 'traitors' were very much part of the campaign

2/6 The hashtag (Family of the humiliated) was a pun on the Alhathloul family name.

Humiliated in Arabic is mathloul. This is similar to Hathloul. It's not sophisticated, but harassment rarely is

Imagine thousands of people attacking your family on Twitter. Looks like this>

3/6 Anyway this trend produced thousands of tweets. I looked at a sample of around 13000 interactions.

Some of the most retweeted accounts include the verified @70sul , another account @saudix7m & @abdullah113438

A dominant theme was describing them as 'agents' or 'traitors

4/6 Some accounts, like 70sul, have been active on similar campaigns before, such as one that targeted @ghadaoueiss last year

Of course the Alhathloul siblings take it on the chin, and make jokes about it.

But should they have to?

5/6 Or should they have to allow Twitter users to even encourage that Loujain should be executed by hanging in a country with a notoriously problematic and non-transparent justice system...

6/6 Indeed, the big question is, why is Twitter allowing itself to be used as a platform that permits wide scale abuse, bullying and harassment of a family of HR activists - not elected officials or politicians

Especially when it violates T & Cs. @TwitterSafety

#FreeLoujain