In light of the recent ISIS attacks in Paris, the world has been on guard with many cities being placed on the highest level of terror alert. Recently, Brussels was placed under this category due to ‘serious threats’ made upon the city, causing the entire city to come under lockdown as schools, universities and public transport systems in the city closed down to protect citizens. In a more humorous turn of events, the Brussel federal police force sent out a Tweet requesting that the public remain silent on any counter-terrorism operations on social media to help prevent terrorists from gaining access to this crucial information.

The people of Brussels and around the world banded together to not only fulfill this request, but also took it a step further and showed their sense of unity in the face of fear and terror. Users on twitter flooded the site with the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown with funny cat memes, effectively burying any intelligence on police movements that may have been shared. Examples of the memes that users were posting included:

It is well-known that ISIS is notorious for exploiting social media (in particular Twitter) to recruit new members and spread their propaganda. This is why the #BrusselsLockdown movement has been so refreshing to see as it is far rarer for us to witness social media being used for good in the war on terror. Through this example set by the people of Belgium, hopefully the rest of the world can follow suit in the face of adversity and use social media to spread positivity when needed.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/23/europe/paris-attacks-brussels-lockdown-cats/