Man arrested in Kuwait for complaining online about the weather

‘I’m inside a dust storm right now, I literally can’t see anything in front of me’

A sandstorm engulfs the city centre, in Kuwait City last week (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A man has been arrested in Kuwait after he posted a video on TikTok complaining about bad weather.

In the footage uploaded to the social media app the man, who has not been identified, can be heard complaining about a sandstorm that has engulfed the country in the past few days.

“I’m inside a dust storm right now, I literally can’t see anything in front of me,” the man says, showing the dust coating the highway like a thick fog.

“Fine, Kuwait, fine,” he adds, with an expletive in Arabic. The clip went viral on Twitter, racking up tens of thousands of views.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior, said on Sunday that the person behind “offensive” video was arrested and referred to authorities, which would “take the necessary legal action against him.”

In response to the arrest of the Egyptian man, who is a resident in the country, a number of social media users posted their own videos insulting the weather in the country.

The Gulf Arab state has an outspoken parliament and relatively vibrant civic life, but authorities have been known to use cybercrime laws to prosecute dissidents and police speech.

Additional reporting by AP