Belgian police met with 'catty response' after requesting online silence

Belgian police, after requesting social media silence during a series of anti-terrorism raids, were met with a 'catty response' across Twitter and other social media platforms on Sunday.

A number of operations were underway across the country following a "terror threat" as the country was put on a maximum security alert over the past few days.

Brussels on alert for Paris-like attack

Federal police took to Twitter requesting social media silence. "For safety, please observe radio silence on social media #Bruxelles ongoing police operations. Thank you," it tweeted.

Soon after, Defence Minister Steven Vandeput also took to Twitter saying, "Police are asking the public not to report their movements on social media, please support & rt #BrusselsLockdown."

People had first started tweeting pictures of police standing guard in the streets, at hotels and roadblocks, which later changed to tweets of cats and cat memes, when police made the request asking for "radio silence" regarding the operation.

Brussels hunts for suspects as lockdown enters second day


As per the request, Belgians dutifully complied with the orders as the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown went viral.

After the operation came to a close, Belgian authorities thanked users "for taking into account the needs of the ongoing operation".