http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=meme - 1 views
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Laura Lewis on 22 Mar 13. On January 25, 2011, Egyptians took to the streets in Cairo, Alexandria, and some other places in the so called Day of Revolt, concentrating their grievances on legal and political matters. Rather than a typical small protest, the Day of Revolt exploded into a monumental moment in Egypt's history because of social media. Social media did not cause Egypt's revolution; however, it accelerated the movement. Viral videos, such as Asmaa Mahfouz's, and the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia created a surge of emotion in Egyptians, persuading them to protest. Egyptian protestors used Facebook and Twitter to get people out on the streets within the country and YouTube to let the world know what was happening. By using tools that the regime underestimated, activists were able to spread hope, not only to Egyptians, but also worldwide, encouraging other repressed populations to attempt something similar in their countries. Because of the protests, President Mubarak stepped down and turned his power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces; however, at the time of publication, protests continue in an effort to speed the process of what many Egyptians see as extinguishing the last remnants of the old regime. Without social media allowing Egyptians to communicate with the outside world, the government would have been able to quickly suppress the protests.
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Role of Social Media in the Revolution Philip Howard (2011) quoted an activist in Cairo as saying, "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." This statement sums up the use of social media in the protest. Newsweek.com offers a collection of videos that are posted chronologically: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/28/youtube-captures-scenes-from-egypt-protests.html. Newsweek calls it the Facebook Revolt; in fact, it could also be called the Twitter Revolution, the first of its kind. However, not everyone agrees with the Facebook Revolution concept. Malcom Gladwell believes that the influence of social media is limited, and the revolutions would have happened anyway: "I mean, in cases where there are no tools of communication, people still get together. So I don't see that as being… in looking at history, I don't see the absence of efficient tools of communication as being a limiting factor on the ability of people to socially organize" (Ingram, 2011).
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