Social Media Activism and the Egyptian Protests

Social media activism is a huge topic right now, especially with protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and Jordan turning to popular social sites to broadcast the protests going on in their countries. The protests which started in Tunisia and have now spread to Egypt are being fueled by social media, and, despite the internet blockade that is currently in place in Egypt, news is still leaking onto social networks by the boat load.  The protest in Egypt, which is based around the presidency of Hosni Mubarak (who has been in power since 1981), has been going on since the 25th of January, and has already resulted in violence and death among the protesters. In an attempt to stem the media coverage of the protest, the Egyptian government blocked internet access and traffic as well as SMS, but it wasn’t as easy to stifle the news and they had hoped. In fact, the blockade has done little to discourage the spread of information and many journalists and protesters have been able to share videos, images and stories with the rest of the web, despite the blockade.  Mashable wrote an interesting post on the way that protesters are bypassing the blockade using mobile and third party apps, proxy websites, software and VPN.

Information including videos and images of the protests have sprung up on most social sites from Facebook to YouTube and the media provides a graphic image of the current events in Egypt.


Image from the National Post


Image from Yfrog


Image from Twitpic





The biggest effect that social media has had on the events in Egypt is the way in which it played a key role in organizing the protests. Through postings on Twitter and Facebook the organizers of the protest have encourage Egyptians to come out and support the protesters against the current president and government. Sites like Reddit (a social bookmarking platform) have played a role as well. Reddit user Callmeces has posted a chronology of events during the protest as well as a list of what protesters are hoping to accomplish (originally seen on Geekosystem.com).

Social media has certainly helped to increase awareness of the political unrest in Egypt, and garner support from internet users worldwide.
What are your thoughts on social media’s influence in the Egyptian protests? Do you think that trying to blockade the internet was an effective tactic, or did it simply incite protesters to spread information?

Posted by Amberlie Denny at January 31, 2011 8:00 AM

Comments