Social Media and Arab spring.

EGYPT
Social media, specifically Facebook, has played a significant role in the Egyptian
revolution, which started on the 25th of January 2011. The Egyptian revolution
started from a Facebook page and since then it has raised social questions such as:
Is this a Facebook Revolution? Although it may be too early to answer such
question, its however, essential to acknowledge that political and social
movements belong to the people and not technological or communicational tools.
This begs the question that: Is social media largely responsible for the Egyptian
revolution?
Arguably, the Egyptian revolution is a good thing for Egyptians therefore, it may be
fair to say that social media has contributed positively to the Egyptian revolution.
Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and other communication methods such as
telephones, and the internet, do not have a moral universe and certainly do not
predispose to any particular ideological or political orientation. They are simply what
people make of them. So, going back to the question, is social media largely
responsible for the Egyptian revolution? Well, no because social media, specifically
Facebook, is no more responsible than Gutenbergs printing press, which ignited the
protestant reformation in the fifteenth century. Having said that, it is fair to say
neither the reformation in the fifteenth century nor the pro-democracy rights
movements around the Arab nations such as Tunisia, Iran, Egypt etc. wouldnt have
come about without these new tools. Social media has revolutionized learning,
cognition and sociability, evolving a new generation of behavior and consciousness.

Case Study:
The Egyptian started with a Facebook page and from there escalated into a
revolution. Data captured shows that the Egypt related conversations peaked at
3,306,947 posts and comments in February [SocialEyes] from 1,624,268 in January
and 1,736,615 in March. The top sites for these comments were Facebook, Twitter,
Masrawy, Youm7, Eqla3 and Ikhwanbook [SocailEyes] and top 3 languages were
English, Arabic and Farsi. It is said that The two wings of the Egyptian revolution
only worked together in harmony with the help of social media platform of
communication. They were disconnected before and just managed to coordinate
their thoughts, demands, and actions, and this was mainly through the social media
networks.

We see strong evidence of this gradual social intervention from 2008 when
thousands of worker rejected the authorities plan to issue privation and planned a
one of the largest works strikes in Egypt. They demanded that the government to
own national industries rather than privatizing them. The effect of social media is
evident here because on the 6th of April, movements began on Facebook and
sparked an Egyptian socio-economic demand. This page played an important role in
supporting and shaping the Egyptian revolution. The tension grew further after the
killing of a 28 year old business man, Khalid Said, which ignited the response of
thousands social media users; surfacing news of protest on major social networks.
In effect, it lead to more social demands such as the end of emergency law,
increasing government subsidy on basic food / commodities and raising minimum
wages. The effect on social media is evident through the formation of We are all
Khalid Said Facebook page, which was created to address the various political
demands of the public and contributed to the Egyptian president of 30 Years to step
down. The series of events that took place in 2011, lead to the inevitable Egyptian
revolution. It started on the 16th of January when the fever of the Tunisian revolution
spread amongst the Egyptian public leading amid to call for a mass revolution on
the 25th of January. On the 17th of January, Facebook users in Egypt continued to
discuss holding a revolution on January 25 th with a clear aim on demanding and
improved condition for Egyptian citizens. Following a similar incident in Tunisia, an
Egyptian man sets himself on fire outside the parliament on the 19 th January and 2
other incidents followed. The 20th of January got the Egyptians contemplating on the
possible public revolution on the 25th; which was then confirmed on the 24th of
January. On the 25th January 2011, Egyptians anticipated the popular sit in on the
Day of anger on the streets amid security enforcements for feat of total chaos in the
country. This day became the 4th most discussed subject on the social media across
the Arab world.

Effects on social media on the people

Following the Facebook page title We are All Khaled Said created by Mr. Ghonim, it
featured horrific pictures of Saids face which weakened official explanations for this
death. 500,000 members were attracted to the page and fundamentally, got people
talking. The Facebook page also tracked other official abuses, wrongly arrests,
torture in detention and corrupt government officials; which inevitably led to the
technical means to plan and organize protests.
Social media had now become a substitute for traditional media, much of which in
Egypt is state controlled. Despite the fact that Ghonim operated the Facebook page
anonymously as an administrator, the authorities seemed to have tracked his hole.
He was arrested and interrogated for 10days after which he was released. On
release, he used social media to comment Freedom is a bless that deserves

fighting for it. Shortly after that, another Facebook page appeared, with hundreds
of thousands of people backing him as the spokesman for the revolt.
His comments were This is an internet revolution, Ill call it revolution 2.0. This
resulted in the internet being cut off. We see foreign intervention here as Google
created Speak2Tweet; allowing Egyptians to leave voice messages that were posted
on Twitter.

Role of social media

Different social media performed different roles in the Egyptian revolution.
Facebook, for instance, helped to organize people., such as detailing how and where
to gather, while Twitter is for amplification, enabling people to share news and
comments in real time; according to Refat Ali, founder of paidcontent.org.
Media has always played a role in revolutions. For instance In the American
Revolution, Thomas Paines pamphlet Common Sense published in 1776,
galvanized the colonists and became the most read publication after the bible. It
was also social, with readings in taverns and coffees shops. John Adams later said:
without the pen of the author of common sense, the sword of Washington would
have never been raised in vain.
Social media now operates on a faster pace. Its too early to early to say what role
social media would take in the Egyptian world but its almost inevitable it would
surpass traditional organized groups such as the Muslim brotherhood. Having said
that, it is clear that social networks would is increasing at an unprecedented pace
and becoming ever more unpredictable.

YEMEN
The Yemen protests occurred at various towns (both north and south) of Yemen
starting in mid-January. The protests were initially about government proposals to
modify the constitution of Yemen, unemployment and economic conditions [8] and
corruption. Their demands then erupted to the resignation of President Ali Abdullah
Saleh [9][10][11], who has been facing internal opposition from the closet advisors
since 2009[12].
On the 27th January, a major demonstration of about 16,000 protesters took place in
Sana. On the 3rd of February, a Day of Rage was called for by human rights
activists and politician Tawakel Karman [13]; with an apparent aim of 1 million
protesters [14]. About 20,000 protesters demonstrated on the 3 rd of February which
led to the presidents statement of not running for the 2013 presidential term [15].
The protest with soldiers, armed members of the general peoples congress and
many protestors led to the concurrent resignation of the Egyptian president
Mubarak, Yemenis again to the the streets protesting President Saleh on 11
February, in what has been dubbed a Friday of Rage[16].
On the 18th of February, dubbed the Friday of Anger, tens of thousands of Yemenis
protesters took partin and anti-government demonstration in major cities such as
Sanaa, Taiz and Aden. On the 3rd of June, the president alongside other high ranking
government escaped an assassination attempt, leaving them injured by a blast [17].

On the 23rd of September 2011, Saleh returned to Yemen abruptly, defying all earlier
expectations leading to his signing of the GCC initiative on the 23 rd November
which also led to Salehs agreement to step down; transferring power to his vice
president. A presidential election was held on the 21 st February 2012 Hadi got
99.8% of the vote.
Role of Social Media
The uprising which began in Yemen gained attention and vigor through the use of
social media. Many group of activists used Twitter (#SupportYemen) to voice their
strong opinions. The editorial column on The Guardian reads: Yemenis are ready to
pay the ultimate price to take on a brutal dictator. Yet the U.N. cant even bring
itself to condemn him. This support campaign is one of many means the world
used to stand with Yemeni youth in opposition of the countrys long time president.
A YouTube page called Break the Silence [18] was also used by activists called
themselves Support Yemen. The video posted on the 9 th October showed images of
Yemenis expressing their anger against the oppressive government and calling for a
reform in the countrys political, judicial and military systems received over 12,000
views.
The groups website listed 5 words only: freedom, justice, dignity, equality,
citizenship. Yemenis are quoted in the Break the Silence video saying, Despite
our peaceful resistance we faced brutal attacks by government security forces
Where is humanity? Where is the world to stand against this? The world is blind to a
new Yemen that was born in Change Square.

International Reactions
Surprisingly, there were few international reactions resulting in the Yemenis
uprising. While the U.N. has yet to take official actions against the current Yemeni
regime, activists are being recognized for their stand against the opposition.
Tawakkal Kaeman and two other Yemeni women shared a Nobel peace prize for their
contributions. There were also praises from the United States Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, to the first Arab women to receive the price and for her
commitment to democracy and human rights.

Arab Spring: Journalism in ethics crisis

Millions of people were attracted by the uprising in the Arab world. Although social
media played a massive role in this voice, local journalists also played key role for
the world to understand what was going on in the middle east.

Ali Jaber, a journalist expert, has seen regional journalism in ethics crises. He
expresses his concerns that journalists are playing activists and not journalists;
They are using the media to their own political agenda, bluntly, Ali Jaber says.
Ali Jaber is particularly doubtful about the sources of information acquired by citizen
journalists, which emphasizes he is not a fan of citizen journalism. He sees the lack
of professionalism and the lack of sufficient education in media ethics at school
rather than blaming the journalists or the citizen journalists themselves.
It may be argued that objectivity is the key to ethical journalism however, the truth
is that there are various journalists from different cultures with different perspective
of the world. Jabers concern over the regional journalism in ethics crisis in the Arab
world is thought provoking however, these are issues related to global journalistic
ethics as well.

Questions:
Who are the real gainers and losers of the Arab spring?
Are there Arab spring activists really satisfied with their current economic models?
And if they are, they running into the ferocious Egyptian bureaucracy?
Do the first pioneers of the Arab spring, for instance people that started the parade
in Tunisia and Egypt, see themselves as role models?
In what way do you think that the U.S. policy will change in response to the Arab
spring and changes in the Middle East?
With the success of the Arab Spring and the freedom of nations, in what way will the
U.S. policy change in the immediate future and in the long run?
What does the future holds for Egypt and similar Arab nations? Will it be a sea
change or just an upgraded autocracy?
Why do you this there are no uprisings in countries like Sudan and Algeria in
comparison to North African countries?
Will the U.S. treat an upspring in the Palestinian territories against Israeli occupation
that same way they treat the uprising in Syria or Libya?
To what extent has the World learnt from this uprising?

References:

[1] http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/612/egypts-revolution-2.0_thefacebook-factor
[2] http://newsgroup.ae/amir2011/amir-march-29.pdf
[3]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870378680457613798025217
7072.html
[4] http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/egypts-revolutionary-fire/
[5] http://pomed.org/blog/2011/01/egypt-ap-confirms-government-hasdisrupted-internet-service.html/#.T1Sj74dJGuI
[6] http://azzasedky.typepad.com/egypt/2012/02/social-media-and-the-arabspring-the-good-and-the-bad.html
[7] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12435550
[8] http://af.reuters.com/article/tunisiaNews/idAFLDE70J2BZ20110120
[9] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12298019
[10] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28yemen.html?
_r=1
[11] http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2009/12/09SANAA2279.html
[12]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112314714887766.ht
ml
[13]
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011129112626339573.
html
[14] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/201102/02/c_13716611.htm
[15] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-yemen-presidentidUSTRE7111WC20110202
[16] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/02/yemenprotests-revived-in-friday-of-rage.html
[17] http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/06/13/several-arrested-in-yemenfor-alleged-role-in-assassination-attempt-on-saleh/
[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=t3w1wjjLb5Q