Popular Egyptian YouTuber Abdullah al-Sherif, who lives in self-imposed exile, alleged that his father has been detained by Egyptian authorities.
“My father, Mohammed al-Sherif, 74, has been arrested. Now, you [the authorities] have three of my kin: My father and my brothers. I have nothing to lose,” the YouTuber tweeted to his 1.9 million followers on Monday.
In a subsequent tweet on Tuesday, Al-Sherif claimed that he had avoided the calls for demonstrations against Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on November 11 but that his involvement had been compelled by his father’s imprisonment.
“Although I did not tweet on the hashtag ‘go out on 11/11 to liberate your country’, but when one clicks on it the Twitter algorithms will direct you to my account, as if they [the algorithms] tell you: No more implicit [talk], boy; it is time for explicit [talk],” Sherif tweeted in a sarcastic tone.
The well-known YouTuber has 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, 1.9 million Twitter followers, 1.8 million Facebook fans, and one million Instagram followers.
On some episodes, he makes public on his weekly broadcast what he claims are recordings of leaked Egyptian government officials, which he claims were obtained and supplied to him by individuals inside the nation.
Pro-government pundits in Egypt have frequently attacked these recordings and attempted to undermine Sherif and the goals behind his program.
He recently released tapes that, according to him, were given to him by Egyptians pledging to take part in the anti-government demonstrations planned for this Friday by the Egyptian opposition in exile.