If the slew of revolutions in the past few months have taught us anything, it is that the internet is a blessing (and that dictators in the Arab world should watch themselves). Massive demonstrations have spread like wildfire throughout the Middle East, jumping from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya in a matter of months. But with the media in these countries closely monitored by the very government being protested, how did the uproar spread so fast?
The answer: Twitter.
Twitter, along with Facebook and YouTube, are social networking and sharing websites that have been instrumental in sparking the revolutions currently affecting the Middle East.
On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian vegetable cart vendor set himself on fire in protest of unfair treatment and seizure of his property. Had it not been for all the Twitter and Facebook updates following his self-immolation, the event would have been forgotten. Demonstrations were organized by the unseen force of social networking, enabling hundreds of Tunisians to quickly form organized rallies and to disperse suddenly. Gruesome images of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s police attacking Tunisian protesters were uploaded to Flickr and Twitter while videos of the protests were released on YouTube and Facebook, spreading knowledge of their struggle to the rest of the world.
All this blogging, yelling and bloodshed paid off. Ben Ali was officially ousted on January 14, 2011. Although there has been continued argument regarding the interim government, elections to a Constitutional Assembly are set to be held on July 24, 2011. There remains much to be accomplished in rebuilding the country, but the Tunisian people are happy to be free.
With the internet, ideas can spread like wildfire. The revolt in Tunisia incited protests in Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Syria and, most notably, Egypt and Libya.
In Egypt, long standing corruption, economic issues, and limited freedoms under Hosni Mubarak’s rein had been growing unrest for some time. The events in Tunisia sparked the fuse that ignited the whole country and it was social networking provided the gunpowder. Twenty-six year old Asmaa Mahfouz was instrumental in the initial demonstrations in Cario. Her video blogs urged Egyptians to join her in a protest in Tahrir Square on January 25. She went viral. The Facebook group set up for the event attracted 80,000 attendees. The result was thousands of protesters attending the National Police Day Protests, causing the date to be known as the Day of Revolt.
After the creation of several Facebook groups and Tweets calling for mass demonstrations appeared, the Egyptian government shut down the internet and cell phone service. This was easier to do in Egypt than it would be for a country like the United States because of the relatively small number of internet service providers. However, many were able to patch through by using an anonymous dial-up service through a French number and certain unblocked DSL lines. Others communicated with ham radio operators in Europe using Morse code. The “hacktivist” group Anonymous faxed information, including relevant WikiLeaks cables, to Egyptian schools and hotels.
One viral image has become the face of the Egyptian revolution. Khaled Mohamed Saeed, a 28-year-old man, refused to show ID to police in an internet café. As a result, the police dragged him into the street and subsequently beat him to death as pedestrians watched. Saeed had posted a video online exposing police officers dividing up the spoils of a drug bust. The Egyptian Ministry claimed that Saeed was a drug addict and his cause of death was choking on a joint, despite witness reports. Photographs of his beaten body have made their way around the internet, inciting people to stand with the Egyptian revolutionaries. The Facebook page “We are all Khaled Said,” started by Wael Ghonim, has garnered support for the cause of freedom with thousands of people joining to show their solidarity.
As far as revolutions go, this was short and resulted in relatively few deaths. The Facebook Generation forced swift change with limited bloodshed. On February 11, Hosni Mubarak resigned as president and left Cario.These countries were not the first to Tweet their way to a revolution. In 2009, both Iran and Moldavia used Twitter as a means to organize protests of controversial elections. Iran’s Green Revolution was sparked by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed victory over Mir-Hossein Mousavi. In Moldavia, demonstrators claimed that the elections, which saw the governing Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldavia win a majority of the seats, to be fraudulent. Both these movements of the people earned the moniker of Twitter Revolution by international media by using Twitter, among other social networking sites, to organize protests and spread word about the injustices being perpetrated. After seeing Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions, Iran had a resurgence of protests that faced often violent suppression from the Iranian police.
The successes of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have inspired Libya to take charge in fighting for democracy. Their battle has become a full out civil war, with rag-tag rebel armies combating Muammar Gaddafi’s troops in open combat. However, Libya is not as inundated with technology as Egypt, so this fight is more old-fashioned.
Americans can mock Twitter as an inane attention-getting activity, but they can’t deny the benefit it has had in the fight for freedom. It has created an availability of communication that history has never seen before. So you should try following a few tweets from Obama or at least someone other than Britney Spears or Kim Kardashian—who knows, they could say something revolutionary.