An announcement on April 11 by the "Hayah Karima" (Decent Life) initiative disclosed talks with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) regarding the integration of refugees into various economic empowerment programs, a move that triggered an escalating hate campaign across digital platforms.

Dozens of accounts carrying a "Kemetist" identity have reactivated hashtags calling for the expulsion and deportation of refugees from Egypt, describing them as "settlers" and "thugs," and also called for boycotting the Hayah Karima initiative.

The calls extended to include boycotting all "associations that support refugees" and not donating to any charitable organization, in addition to demanding the closure of UNHCR offices in Egypt and the expulsion of its staff.

The campaign later escalated to calling for authorizing the Egyptian Army to deport refugees via the hashtag #نفوض_الجيش_بترحيل_اللاجئين (We Authorize The Army To Deport Refugees).

Arabi Facts Hub had previously addressed the hashtags inciting against refugees and calling for their deportation from Egypt, as well as the accounts leading them, and monitored the amplification patterns associated with them.

Amplifying Old Hashtags and Launching New Ones

Despite the significant increase in the number of posts related to refugee deportation hashtags on April 11 and 12, an examination of the accounts that began circulating these hashtags showed that they had not interacted with them previously during the past months.

For example, the account "Sabreen Ragab🇪🇬" "@JoK4Y0KPoPAdTm3" posted clips of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on April 10, accompanied by the hashtags:

#مصر_للمصريين_مش_تكية (Egypt is For Egyptians, Not A Charity)

#ترحيل_جميع_اللاجئين_مطلب_شعبي (Deporting All Refugees is a Popular Demand)

Despite this, no previous interaction with these two hashtags was recorded for this account; it also does not have a profile picture and contains a random username, which are common traits of fake accounts.

The same pattern was repeated with other accounts, such as "@ahmadhamadien" and "Civil Egypt @QegSee61229," which did not start interacting with the hashtags until April 9, 10, and 11, even though the hashtags themselves were not new, indicating a potential prior coordination to reactivate them.

Evidence from the graph supports this conclusion: total posts reached their maximum on April 14, yet the highest reach occurred on April 13. This sequence, where reach peaks prior to the volume of posts, suggests a coordinated effort to amplify content.

Concurrently, new hashtags emerged to expand the campaign's scope, most notably #ترحيل_اللاجئين_السودانين_البلطجية (Deport Sudanese Refugee Thugs), which appeared for the first time on April 12, via a quote-tweet from the account "Sherin Helal," a prominent account in digital incitement against refugees.

The quote was posted by an account named @NooshaShehab, a newly created account that does not have a profile picture and is dedicated to publishing political content and amplifying hate speech against refugees.

The hashtag #ترحيل_اللاجئين_السوريين_أمن_قومي (Deporting Syrian Refugees is a matter of NationalSecurity) also appeared on April 14, even though the campaign focused primarily on Sudanese refugees, indicating an attempt to widen the scope of targeting and increase proliferation.

An examination of the accounts showed that several of them explicitly declare their support for former President Hosni Mubarak, such as the account @Nour2dam, which was among the first users of some hashtags, in addition to other recent accounts that used images of Mubarak and promoted boycott hashtags.

The account @Nour2dam defined itself as a "supporter of Mubarak's Egypt..." and was among the first to use the hashtag #ترحيل_اللاجئين_السوريين_أمن_قومي (Deporting Syrian Refugees is a matter of National Security) in April. Accounts supporting former President Hosni Mubarak also played a prominent role in the spread of the hashtags, as the first to post the hashtag #مقاطعة_حياة_كريمة (Boycott Hayah Karima) was also a newly created account named @WafaaAdel58, which used a picture of Mubarak as a cover photo for its account.

The hashtag #نفوض_الجيش_بترحيل_اللاجئين (We Authorize The Army To Deport Refugees) also emerged via recent accounts linked to the same network, with mutual interaction between them, reinforcing the hypothesis of coordination.

The calls later escalated, not only to boycott the "Decent Life" initiative but also to boycott all charitable organizations in Egypt, under the hashtags:

#مقاطعة_حياة_كريمة (Boycott Hayah Karima)

#مقاطعة_الجمعيات_التي_تدعم_اللاجئين (Boycott Civil Associations That Support Refugees)

#لا_للتبرع_لاي_جمعيه_خيريه (NoT Donating To Any Charitable Organization)

#غلق_مقرات_مفوضية_اللاجئين_في_مصر (Close UNHCR Headquarters In Egypt)

#طرد_موظفي_مفوضية_اللاجئين (Expel UNHCR Staff)

The first to post these hashtags was an account named "Georgette Qalini @qlyny1382" in a comment on the "Sherin Helal" account. This account is newly created and shares the characteristics of fake accounts: it does not have a profile picture, the username consists of random letters and numbers, and all its posts are dedicated to amplifying hashtags.

The transparency feature revealed that the account is active from the West Asia region, which usually refers to the UAE.

Coordinated Campaign Against Refugees

Analysis showed that the total number of posts related to the campaign reached 11,200, achieving an estimated reach of 169 million, and about 1.2 million interactions within one month.

52% of the posts were classified as negative content, compared to only 8% positive, while the rest were neutral, with a clear dominance of feelings of anger, the rise of which coincided with the increase in the number of posts, reflecting a consistent pattern in fueling hostile discourse.

These feelings were reflected in the sentiment curve of the posts, as the anger curve was the most synchronized with the curve of increasing posts over time, indicating that the content was posted in a coordinated manner that contributed to the accumulation of feelings of anger, which is the apparent goal of the campaign.

Feelings of anger outweighed other emotions, giving the campaign the character of hate speech directed against refugees in Egypt.

X accounted for 84.23% of total posts, followed by Facebook at 11.17%, then TikTok at 1.77%.

Geographically, Egypt topped the list of the most participating countries, followed by Saudi Arabia by a significant margin, then the United States, Kuwait, and Syria, noting the limited accuracy of geographic data.

Fake Accounts Driving Amplification

The analysis revealed a large number of fake accounts that contributed to amplifying the reach of the posts. By analyzing 11,200 posts, a network map of interaction was built between the most prominent accounts that led the activity.

According to the visual analysis of the network map, accounts that amplify content through tagging and comments appear on its right, while accounts that played the role of "broadcast nodes" for the content stand out on its left, including the account "Shrienhelal555," which led the publication of the campaign content.

The amplified accounts appear in the list of the most interactive accounts, led by the account "@AmalGenedy amal G 3," which posted 1,131 posts.

It is a recent account, likely fake, and appeared as one of the most prominent accounts that played a key role in amplifying the network's content.

Also prominent is the account @samahnasse761, which posted 645 posts and shows a similar pattern, as it does not have a profile picture, and the account name differs from the username, which are indicators that it is not a real account.

It is a similar account to the previous one, fake/not real, newly created, does not have a profile picture, and the account name differs from its username, confirming that it is a fake account.

Other accounts also appeared that contributed to amplification through comments, such as the account AHMED NADA @AMFAN63, which posted 244 posts, defined itself as being from the "Children of Kemet," and used a low-quality profile picture.

As well as the account @nonaFowzy, which posted 513 posts, and although it is not newly created, the analysis of its posting pattern showed a reliance on heavily reposting identical content, indicating non-human behavior.

Similarly, the account @Nour2dam stood out, which posted 310 posts and follows a similar pattern, as it reposts content from other anti-refugee accounts accompanied by the list of hashtags associated with the campaign.

These patterns show that fake accounts played the role of "amplification nodes," through interacting via tagging, commenting, and reposting with content broadcasting accounts, such as Sherin Helal, reflecting a sharing of roles between publishing and amplifying content within a coordinated digital campaign targeting refugees in Egypt.