School officials in Texas are standing by their decision to detain Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a homemade clock to school, but the 14-year-old old has found some incredibly high-profile supporters, including the US president and the chief executive of Facebook.

Ahmed, from Irving, Texas, left school in handcuffs on Monday after his English teacher told him and the school’s principal that his homemade clock looked like a bomb.

In the days since the incident, Ahmed – who was not charged but was suspended for three days – has become an overnight internet celebrity, attracting the attention of Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the rest of the internet community.

The president tweeted:

Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook out of his Harvard dorm room, wrote on Facebook that “having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed.”

He then invited Ahmed to visit him at work.

“Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building,” Zuckerberg wrote.

And Google invited him to its science fair, but only if he promised to bring his clock.

According to Topsy, the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed has been tweeted more than 367,000 times in the past 24 hours and was trending worldwide on Twitter. Many used the hashtag to share their disgust about Ahmed’s treatment:

Obama was not the only politician tweeting his support of the Texas teen. Hillary Clinton also joined in:

Some people began sharing photos of themselves with clocks or watches to show solidarity:

Among the messages of support were a few offers for Ahmed himself. Bobak Ferdowsi, also known as “Nasa Mohawk guy”, tweeted:

Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical astrophysicist at MIT, tweeted:

Meanwhile, Ahmed and his family have set up a Twitter account, @IstandwithAhmed, to share updates, tweeting that he was on his way to meet with an attorney.