Egypt Revolution by & Facebook

Exploring the debate about the role of social media in Egypt's uprising                   

It took just 18 days of protests to force the resignation of Egypt’s long-serving President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The uprising saw protesters from across the political spectrum gather in their hundreds of thousands in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to bring a momentous end to his repressive 30 year regime.

Long before the start of the uprising, social media had become the main channel for young educated Egyptians to discuss their aspirations and grievances. Around two-thirds of the population is thought to be under 30 and their dislike of Mubarak centered on issues of low wages, high unemployment, police brutality and widespread corruption.

Many had been communicating through Facebook, Twitter and blogs in the run-up to the unrest, but as the crowds gathered in Tahrir Square, the regime reacted quickly by shutting down the Internet. Although this act of censorship failed to stifle the uprising, the significance of social media in influencing its outcome has become hotly debated.Elizabeth Iskander of LSE’s Middle East Centre has examined the connection between social media and the uprising. Part of her research involved interviewing Facebook users.

Blogs began to emerge and disseminate footage of anti-government protests and strikes. They were the first to speak openly and explicitly about police torture and brutality, posting testimonies, pictures and videos on the Internet.

Esraa Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian woman who created a group on Facebook in 2008 calling for solidarity with striking workers, quickly attracted massive support, and the strikes began to symbolize a broader protest against the regime. She was arrested and held for two weeks, but her movement became part of the political scene.In 2010 Mohammed ElBaradei, a former head of the International Atomic Agency, returned to Egypt and used social media to call for free elections, but state media launched a strong campaign against him and he failed to achieve any progress. Dr Iskander says this points to the continued importance of traditional media in a country where the majority does not have regular Internet access.

When a young man called Khalid Mohamed Said was beaten to death by police outside a cyber café in Alexandria in June 2010, pictures of his disfigured body were posted all over the Internet and led to the creation of an influential Facebook group “We Are All Khalid Said”. The surge of public opposition to police brutality led to the choice of January 25 2011 as a “Day of Rage” as this is National Police Day in Egypt and subsequently became the first day of the uprising.

Dr Iskander concludes that social media were central to the way the January 25 uprising was experienced for the minority of the population that uses Facebook and Twitter and how it was explained to the outside world.