JMS+375+Group+4

**The Role of Social Media in Egyptian Protests** Group 4 JMS 375

**I. History and Background of Egypt** By: Anna Drozdoff and Alyson Fargher

Many different territories have occupied Egypt over many years, which have ultimately led to the countries political unrest. British authorities up until 1914 governed Egypt under Ottoman Empire. During this time Egypt became a British protectorate because of the devastation and hardship caused by the beginning of World War I. Many Egyptians fought along side the British during this war. However in 1922 Great Britain was urged by the many nationalist Egyptian movements to declare full independence in the country. A constitution was formed in which the government would be set up aligned with the British form of government (a bi-cameral parliament where the King and nominated PM held executive powers). Though Britain still kept military troops in the region, Egypt still had its own leader, Faud I. Great Britain still kept a watchful eye over the country, and constantly intervened in both the political and economical aspects of the country. For the next thirty years Egypt would have to continually deal with the hardships that were a result of former colonization of British rule. This created many tensions in the political aspects of government because many different types of political groups within the country and outside of the country would try to assert the Egyptian kind in various directions. There was a severe problem with the balancing of the power of equilibrium between sovereign and foreign powers. Tensions increased all through the beginning of the Second World War, because Egypt again allied with Great Britain. This caused unrest within the political structure because Egyptian citizens thoroughly wanted to rid themselves of their foreign British ties. In 1948, the Israeli-Arab war began and this furthered the unrest and frustrations of the differing parties within Egypt, to the point where a man named Mohammed Nagib and his followers threw the King out of power in 1952. The very next year Nagib became the self proclaimed president of the newly formed Egyptian Republic. Nagib, though, found that he had little power when it came to the structure of Egypt’s political system, as he was constantly being stifled in decision making by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was a member of the council for the initial revolution. Eventually Nasser gained more power than Nagib, and became the second Egyptian president in 1956. Over the next few years, he found that his partisan ties aligned very closely with surrounding Arabic states. At this time Egypt wanted to begin building it’s nations infrastructure to parallel with it’s growing population and thirst for political power, but found they had many problems with getting funding for their water and power projects from the International Bank. To counteract this problem Egypt began to capitalize on nationalizing certain canal companies in the region. This caused European countries to try and intervene in these affairs, which ultimately led to the Trip-part invasion by Britain, France, and Israel. This battle lasted for less than a year, as a cease-fire was declared by the United Nations in November. In 1958, Egypt and Syria join to form the UAR, United Arab Republic, to help increase political power of the two Arab nations. However, Syria soon broke away, but Egypt remained known still as the UAR. In 1971, Nasser suddenly dies, and Anwar al-Sadat succeeded him. Under Sadat a new constitution that combined more liberal reforms of social and economical aspects of the nation and the United Arab Republic is changed to the Arab Republic of Egypt. In 1973, during the celebration of Yom Kippur Egypt and Syria attack Israel to try and reclaim the land they lost during the Tri-part invasion. The problems between Israel and Arab nations continue to erupt, but in 1978 Egypt and Israel signed peace treaty to stop the feud between the two countries. Because of this Egypt is condemned by all of their surrounding Arab countries and is forced out of the multi-national established Arab League and soon after Sadat is assisinated by Jihad members. In 1981, Husni Mubarak is elected as the new president of Egypt. During this time, many radical fundamentalist groups began to spring up all over the country in response to Mubarak’s reign, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Jama as-Islamiya. Mubarak would serve to form a completely oppressive government.

**II. What Happened** By: Natay Holmes, Corey Dutina and Austin Mayer

==**Past Tragedy in Egypt ** ==

Human rights conditions in Egypt are considered overwhelmingly poor. These poor conditions can be identified in various cases of discrimination again women, the denial of religious recognition to those who are not Islamic, and torture practiced on those who wish for democratic rule. The current uprisings in Egypt have taken place to overthrow Hosni Mubarak, who himself succeeded former president Anwar Sadat. Islamic extremists tragically murdered Sadat at a parade thrown to celebrate Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal. Sadat had successfully proposed an Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty signed in 1979, a sign for a peaceful future and maybe a glimpse of the resurrection of human rights Anwar had wished for his country. The tragedy imposed by Islamic extremists who desired no peace with Israel inevitably led to the presidency of Mubarak and the declination of human rights for Egyptian citizens, until the 2011 uprising.

Timeline of Protest Events


25 January 2011: The "Day of Revolt": Protest break out in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak's government is the target of tens of thousands of non-violent protesters although some police and civilian casualties are reported.

 26 January 2011: "Shutting down The Internet": Social network such as Facebook and Twitter are used to organized mass demonstrations and create international awareness. Egyptian government shuts the internet all over the country in order to cut off the protesters main organization tool.

 28 January 2011: The "Friday of Anger": In response to the shutting down of the internet hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Cairo and other Egyptian cities after Friday prayers. Police forces are withdrawn and the military was deployed. President Mubarak makes first address to public and promises a new government. Confrontation breaks out in Tahrir Square between revolutionaries and pro-Mubarak demonstrators, leading to the injury of several and the death of some.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 29 January 2011: Egyptian soldiers secure the <span class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom-color: #366388; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Egyptian Museum from looter. Mubarak appoints Omar Suleiman, the country's former spy chief, to vice-president. Military reportedly refuses orders to use live ammunition. No casualties are reported.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 30 January 2011: The <span class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom-color: #366388; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Egyptian Air Force uses F-16s to fly over Tahrir Square as a show of force.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 2 February 2011: "Battle of the Camel": Clashes between anti-government and pro-Mubarak protesters break out in <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Alexandria. Pro-democracy protesters say the military allowed thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters, armed with sticks and knives, to enter the square. Up to 1,500 people are injured, some of them seriously, and by the day's end at least three deaths are reported. <span class="yshortcuts" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Google improves its speak2tweet technology for the people in Egypt. After a five day blackout, internet services are restored.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 6 February 2011: The <span class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom-color: #366388; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Muslim Brotherhood says in a statement that it "has decided to participate in a dialogue round in order to understand how serious the officials are in dealing with the demands of the people". Banks re open for 3.5 hours and traffic police are back on the streets in order to get Cairo running like normal.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 8 February 2011: The city sees possibly the biggest crowd of demonstrators, including Egyptians who have returned from abroad and other newcomers mobilised by the release of activist Wael Ghonim. Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, warns that his government "can't put up with continued protests" for a long time.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"> 10 February 2011: Mubarak formally addressed Egypt amid speculation of a military coup, but rather than resigning (as was widely expected), he simply stated he would delegate some of his powers to Vice President Suleiman, while continuing as Egypt's head of state. Reactions to Mubarak's statement were marked by anger, frustration and disappointment, and throughout various cities there was an escalation of the number and intensity of demonstrations.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">11 February 2011: The "Friday of Departure", Egyptians did not settle for Mubarak's announcement of ceding his powers to Suleiman, and set up massive protests in many Egyptian cities. At 6:00 p.m. local time, Suleiman announced Mubarak's resignation and that the Supreme Council of Egyptian <span class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom-color: #366388; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">Armed Forces would assume leadership of the country.

<span style="font-size: 80%; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">What Would Have Happened If Protestors Didn't Have Access To The Internet?
It is evident that social media played a role in the protests in Egypt but, social media is not the sole purpose for the outcome of protests that took place on January 25, 2011. The use of social medial did not cause the Egyptian revolt. “The revolt still would have happened. But in this day of real-time communication, word of the January 25 protests spread more quickly and gained momentum that would have been hard to achieve without the social networks (Dietrich).” The events that took place on January 28th show the relationship between social media and the Egyptian revolt. The Egyptian government used their power to blockade the use of internet and cell phone usage but, that alone could not stop the protestors. The blockade quickly failed. According to “What’s fueling Mideast protests? It’s More Than Twitter,” written by David Kravets “Only about a quarter of the Egyptian populace is online, el-Amrani estimated. So street protests have grown the old-fashioned way: by leaflets and spontaneous amalgamation.” Many of the protestors are groups that have been marching the streets of Egypt for the past 10 years. The revolt, which started January 25, was able to bring the groups together. According to BCC News, in an article written by Anne Alexander, “This is the first time they have all demonstrated together, and the first time they have been joined by millions of their fellow citizens. But it is important to understand that this movement builds on a legacy of protest by many different activist networks, most of which are not primarily organized online.” A Middle East expert from Cairo stated “I’ve seen a lot of small groups of people wandering the streets and people spontaneously joining them. At every house, they would yell, ‘Come down’ (Kravets).” This shows that individuals are more capable to organize and protest with others encouraging them. In the 1940’s it was the last time the country of Egypt had a large revolt, much of like what happened now. During this time there were no social media outlets. Natives used radical bookshops, underground newspapers, and illegal trade unions meetings to help organize the revolt. So it is safe to say that mass protests can organize without the use of social media. According to the article “Protests in Egypt Challenge Assumptions About Social Media Influence,” written by Jaikumar Vijayan, “once the protests really gathered momentum there's been little need for a Twitter or a Face book to keep them going (and growing), ” especially once the government blockade internet and cell phone usage. If Internet played no part in the Egyptian protests, there still would have been a revolt, the momentum just would not have moved so rapidly. The protestors “ability to gather, to communicate and to be unified in protest, appears largely untouched by the unavailability of the social Web and the Internet (Vijayan).” It is safe to say that political revolutions do not require the usage of social media outlets and the internet to “thrive.”

<span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #800000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;">**III. Role of technology in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution ** By: Daniel Iglesias, Laura Barrick, & Marissa Green

<span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">**Introduction**
The 2011 Egytian Revolution will probably go down in history as social media's coming of age. Also the first Revolution where social media networks, specially Facebook and Twitter, proved pivotal in the outcome of the revolution. Two cases in particular prove the large influence that Facebook and Twitter had in the Egyptian Revolution: a Facebook group that rallied insurgents into action and a Twitter hashtag that kept the world informed of breaking news during the revolution. World-wide famous Youtube website also played a crucial role as to how people from all around the world could view the protests from their own computers, making the protests completely real even to citizens who weren't apart of them.Tumblr, another popular blogging website, is another form of social media that people used to discuss their opinions regarding the protests, and what was going on in Egypt when the Egyptian government shut down the Internet.

===**<span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">A.) Facebook group "We are all Khaled Sai ****<span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">d" **===

A Facebook group was the catalyst that triggered the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, also referred to as the Revolution of January 25. The Revolution was fueled by the resentment of a country after 30 years of dictatorship under Hosni Mubarak. The high rate of unemployment of young Egyptians also contributed to the discontent of the nation. Everyone had the ideas of change, some that involved a coup d'etat to Mubarak. But nobody acted upon them. There was yet to be a clear organization.

The Tunisian Revolution and the creation of Facebook group "We are all Khaled Said" inspired Egyptians to finally mobilize and demonstrate against Mubarak's regime. The group was created by [|Wael Ghomin], Google's Head of Marketing in the Middle East and North Africa. Ghomin named the group after [|Khaled Said], a blogger that criticized Mubarak's government and was allegedly beaten to death by the Egyptian authorities. The group managed to raise 600,000 fans and its considered to be what sparked the Revolution.

In the group, users were able to exchange their opinions about Mubarak's policies. They shared photos, videos and comments of the injustices occurring in their daily lives. It also became a prominent way of communicating between members and to plan the logistics of the demonstrations. The group managed to attract enough attention from the international community before Mubarak's attempt to shut down the whole nation's communication system. During the communication shut down people where still able to communicate to the world what was occurring in Egypt thanks to the social media networks, Twitter and Facebook. This elevated the morale of the insurgents and contributed to the successful overthrow of Mubarak.

more info: []

B.) Twitter Hashtag "#Jan25"


Twitter became relevant to mass culture during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Its proof was during the Revolution that started in January 25, a hashtag "#Jan25" became a trending topic worldwide and it continue to be for the following days. During the main demonstration at Tahrir Square there were approximately 25 tweets per minute with the #Jan25 hashtag helping protesters stay informed learning everything from locations where tear gas being drop to announcements of free food being handed down to protesters. A hashtag allows user to group similar topics together and make them easier to find on the large tweet pool. Whenever someone wants to contribute to the feed they just need to add the hashtag at some point during their comment. "Mubarak out, Egypt forever free #Jan25" Al Jazeera's Latin American correspondent [|Dima Khatib] was very successful at retweeting protesters messages in Arabic, English and Spanish expanding the reach of the protest ten-fold. She continued to tweet rally messages with the #Jan25 hashtag and although the government did attempt to shut down Twitter, protesters were still able to access the site by using proxies or calling friends outside the country to tweet for them. Having an agile form of communication enable insurgents to coordinate their actions effectively and contribute to the successful overthrow of Mubarak.

more info: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/0125/Egypt-s-protests-told-by-Jan25

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">**C.) YouTube**

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Although globally popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have played a crucial role in these recent Egyptian protests, website Youtube has given outside viewers a way of actually viewing what has been going on in Egypt. If you couldn’t imagine how violent or how serious these protests were, by simply going onto Youtube’s website, you are able to view footage that various Egyptian citizens have shot and uploaded to the site. It is almost surreal to grasp how social media can connect people all around the world and inform them about such serious issues (such as these Egyptian protests). Without the advancement of the Internet and social media, we might not have a great deal of information regarding these protests otherwise. In this video uploaded on January 28th on Youtube, just three days after the “Day of Anger” in Egypt, the two and a half minute video clearly shows how many Egyptian citizens were passionate about their protesting. Anyone who views this video can also see how much effort police officers went through to protect themselves; most wore shielding masks to further defend their faces from the violent protestors, who did not seem to have a problem with lashing out against the officers.

media type="youtube" key="3xWiBCIxjIk" width="425" height="350" align="center"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">**D.) Flickr**

<span style="display: block; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;"> Flickr is an amazing photo sharing site that anyone can use. Some people may use it for their own personal interests and others may use it simply to share their photos with the world. These times of protests in Egypt have created news worthy photos for months. The best way to find pictures from people who are in the protests themselves is through Flickr. When I first went onto the site I typed in under the search engine “Bahrain Protests.” Immediately, hundreds of pictures presented themselves. Clicking on the pictures even gives you a description of the photograph and more options that you can click on to find more pictures that pertain that that topic. <span style="display: block; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;">During these protests, photojournalism has at times been even more powerful than news media and journalists themselves. It shows what is really going on in these countries and depicts the lives of the people that are involved in these protests. It puts faces behind the headlines. Flickr is a great tool that so many people use to share their photos with the world, just like how youtube shares videos, Flickr allows people to post their pictures from their personal experiences and it allows for people like you and I to get a small taste of what is going on in these historic protests. <span style="display: block; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;">I believe that Flickr is one of the more useful forms of sharing information and photos in terms of social networking. Yes, with Facebook and Twitter you can post things up to to the second, but I think with Flickr and sharing your photos, it allows you as a viewer to get an insight of the photos and only gives you a small idea of what is really going on over there. With print journalism anything can be said, but with Flickr the saying, “A picture if worth a 1000 words” really does ring true. <span style="display: block; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;">A particular case study regarding Flickr touched on many ideas surrounding the concept of Web 2.0. The study quoted, “Many Web 2.0 sites such as Flickr, del.icio.us or Last.fm, offer their users the possibility of tagging online content. Tagging can be defined as the enrichment of digital contents with semantically meaningful information in the form of freely chosen text labels, or tags.” This goes back to what was previously stated about how when a photo is tagged, it then allows for people to click on similar tags that could be linked with that photo- ultimately making it easier for you to search under similar photos. This concept of "tagging" was especially important at the time of these Egyptian protests. People were easily able to maneuver through the photos that they wanted to, and were able to view different aspects of the protests they were curious about. This only proves once again how crucial of a role social media played in these protests; people from all around the world were able to view precisely what was happening with just a "click" of their mouse. If it weren't for social media outlets such as Flickr, it is no doubt that millions of people would have the slightest idea all of this gruesome violence was occurring in Egypt.

**IV. Conclusion** By: Rita Lewellen & Paulina Gallardo

While protests continued to sweep through Egypt, the number of activists continued to grow at a staggering rate, assuring Egyptians that they were not alone. This occurred by bringing together like-minded people from across the globe via the Internet using social media and blogging. According to Bianca Bosker from the Huffington Post (2011), “There were 122,319 tweets between January 16 and 23...1.3 million tweets between January 24 and January 30,” which indicates the growth of the trend. Inspired by the protesters in Tunisia, the Egyptian people felt the much needed support through this medium, therefore the internet helped to facilitate the unhappy youth to cause a revolution within the Arab world. These young people constituted sixty percent of the area's population and were angry, mostly, at the lack of economic opportunity available to them, which is four times higher than the average in the region. Tunisian and Egyptian economies have been growing at an average of 5-7% a year, and the dictators ruling these countries were unable to handle the growing demands of its citizens, making it difficult to contribute financial support and also provide growing demands that include basic and essential freedoms, democracy and human rights. These frustrations were all sustained through Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites allowing opinions and information to be permanently documented, and easily accessible. Much debate has taken place over the effects that social media had over the revolution; however, one thing is for certain: The largest effect seemed to be the anger provoked when these services were denied. The Tunisia riots were set off by the death of a 26-year-old man named Mohamed Bouazizi, who killed himself after police seized vegetables he was trying to sell. From this point forward momentum began to build and with each new supporter came several hundred, helping to bring light on the cause and demand change for civil liberties and rights and an improvement in living conditions. In Egypt, the government's early decision to block Twitter and Facebook and to later shut off the Internet entirely, which enraged citizens forcing them to organize and rise against. While social media helped protestors to organize and communicate it were the actions of those few like Bouazizi that ultimately triggered others to join in the opposition. In terms of what will happen in the future, it is hard to tell. It is apparent that Egypt and Tunisia are paving the way for other countries under authoritarian regimes, and makes other countries think, "Why can't we?" With technology evolving at a faster rate than ever, it is inevitable that the world will only continue to connect at quicker speeds and with greater ease, allowing movements like this to take place on larger scales than previously seen. As signs of success become clear, like the resignation of Egyptian leader President Mubarak, demonstrations calling for change are happening effectively within bordering countries, and places such as Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, and Sudan have already experienced revolutions of their own as well. This experience, for many, will influence future generations to continue the fight for equality and basic human rights, with successes stories such the situation in Egypt, the fear of an uprising public will force governments across the globe to comply with needs and wants of the people in its nations.

**References**

1. Alexander, Anne. (2011, Feb 9). Internet Role in Egypt’s Protests. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12400319. 2. BBC News. (2011 February 11). Timeline: Egypt. Retrieved April 24, from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/790978.stm 3. Bosker, B. (2011, January 31) Despite social media block, 'egypt' surges on twitter. Huffington post. Retreived from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/twitter-egypt-protests_n_816542.html 4. Dietrich, Gini (2011, Feb 1). Social Media in Egypt. Retrieved From http://www.spinsucks.com/social-media/social-media-in-egypt/. 5. Kravets, David (2011, Jan 27). What’s Fueling Middle East Protest? It’s More Than Twitter. Retrieved From http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/social-media-oppression/. 6. MidEastWeb. (2003). Egypt: A Brief History. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from: http://www.mideastweb.org/egypthistory.htm 7. Vijayan, Jaikmur (2011, Jan 31). Protests in Egypt Challenge Assumptions about Social Media Influence. Retrieved from http://blogs.computerworld.com/17741/protests_in_egypt_challenge_assumptions_about_social_media_influence/.