Internet Responds To Brussels Lockdown With Cats On Social Media

By posting amusing pictures of cats to social networking site Twitter, Belgians have reacted to the terror lockdown now in place in Brussels.

Like the rapid social media reaction to the Paris Attacks that emerged in the form of an illustrated Eiffel Tower icon and the corresponding hashtags #JeSuiParis, #JeSuiParisien, the response, #BrusselsLockdown, points again to the immediate global communicative power of social media.

Freedom wins. And cat memes, too.

The terror alert in Belgium’s capital, Brussels, raised to a maximum level of 4/4 over the weekend, meaning the chance of a terrorist attack was serious and imminent.

“For safety, please observe radio silence on social media #Bruxelles ongoing police operations”. But that cohort did not include Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks in which 130 people plus several of the terrorists died.

What do you do when police request no-one tweets pictures of an operation happening outside your door amid a city-wide lockdown?

“I think in one hour I’ve seen more #lolcats than I’ve seen in the rest of my life”, said social media specialist Mateusz Kukulka, or @Mateusz.

According to AFP, it is believed the idea was conceived by a cameraman for the Dutch television channel NOS, Hugo Janssen, who tweeted: “Instead of tweets about police activity in Brussels, here’s a picture of our cat Mozart”.

A classic internet meme reappropriated by Belgian Twitter users during raids on Sunday.

A total of 22 raids were carried out on Sunday across Brussels and Charleroi, Belgian prosecutor Eric van der Sypt told a news conference.