An Arabic hashtag which translates, as "We don't want girls on Twitter" was mentioned almost 400,000 times over the weekend as the Neanderthals attempted to purge Twitter of all women, who must be the property of other men.

However much to their horror the hashtag was circulated by women who thought the whole thing was a joke along with the men who backed it.  Those opposed to segregation of the sexes pitched in as well.

"Why? What have we done?" cried one user with mocking emojis.

"This is the person who started the hashtag," tweeted another, above a picture of a goat.

One user pointed out a maxim heeded by advert writers and nightclub owners the world over. "If there were no girls on twitter," said @arts121, "no man will sign up."

Some women also started a hashtag "We don't want men on Twitter" in retaliation - but it only gathered around 1,500 tweets.

Of course it is early days yet – all the men need to do is find a few daft priests who think that the prophet would not have approved of women on Twitter and they will have won, at least until the oil runs out.