6April2008 - Amr Gharbeia on Diigo

28 Oct 09

Arab Media & Society - The end of the beginning: The failure of April 6th and the future of electronic activism in Egypt

Page 6, a bit on the way forward. Still no hint of improvements to the tools themselves.

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6April2008 Internet Egypt Activism

It doesn’t seem that the Egyptian regime intends to shut down networks altogether (though that of course remains an ever present possibility, particularly during short-term crises). Rather, its aim seems to be creating uncertainty and hardship for activists engaging with technological tools at the same time that are persecuted in much more straightforward and old-fashioned ways.[33]
It will take a much savvier opposition, with much clearer goals and a much stronger presence on the ground, to seriously threaten the state.
- ie, 30 Feb. - on 2009-10-28
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- if a viable opposition is to take shape with the assistance of electronic media like Twitter and Facebook, that opposition will have to pay much more careful attention to the kinds of small-scale struggles over freedom taking place every day in the courts, the press, the labor sector, and the professional associations. Where was the April 6^th movement, for instance, on the long-running strike in the Tanta Flax and Oils Company?
- if they can successfully pool their resources, social media are likely to play a critical role in building political consensus, coordinating and executing concrete actions, and in putting together international human rights coalitions that can put pressure on the regime
- The April 6th organizers Mohamed Adel, for instance was detained for several months in 2008.
  - Adel was detained on the background of going to Gaza and closely being affiliated with Hamas members. - on 2009-10-28
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Arab Media & Society - The end of the beginning: The failure of April 6th and the future of electronic activism in Egypt

Page 5, a few good notes on mobiles

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6April2008 Internet Egypt Activism Mobile

A focus on Facebook also appears to have missed the apparent shift of online dissent from blogs to Twitter. As Hossam El-Hamalawy puts it, “the migration is not happening to Facebook, it’s happening to the microblogs.”[25] He adds, “Facebook is one of the outlets I have, but the heavyweights are not using Facebook.” The heavyweight bloggers El-Hamalawy refers to were skeptical of the April 6^th movement and its potential, even before the first strike. As blogger Demagh MAK puts it, “The thing is that it’s just easier to use Twitter than a blog. You are in the middle of a demonstration and someone is killed or arrested -- you can’t leave the demonstration and write a blog. One is killed two arrested; you can just send it by Twitter and everybody now knows.”[26] And in fact, it was Twitter that served as the most important clearinghouse for information regarding the events of April 6, 2009.
- This is temporary and linked to mobile updates. Mobile status updates are only a part of a general-purpose social network that can make any real effect - on 2009-10-28
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For starters, a sophisticated registration-and-tracing system is now in place for mobile phones, allowing the government to track users, interfere with their signals, and shut down large-scale attempts to text message. The Egyptian government successfully blocked the routes of activists’ text messages during the 2009 strike.
- Any sources for this? - on 2009-10-28
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- According to one April 6^th leader, the movement tried to get around this obstacle by purchasing text-messages in bulk from India at a rate of $.01 per message, but the regime successfully blocked these messages as well.
  - Who? - on 2009-10-28
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- The regime has also instituted changes in the structure of internet cafes, vital sites of access to the internet for the average citizen that had been critical to the building of online public spheres in Egypt and in particular the creation and initial success of the April 6^th movement. For years individuals had been able to enter cafés and get online with minimal interference from either café owners or the state. However, as of August 2008, café owners were required to collect vital information about the individuals using their computers.[28] There can be little doubt about the intent of these regulations, and while their effect might be limited in practice, on a symbolic level the attempt to regulate access so closely could only have a chilling effect on the kind of writing, dissent, and activism individuals are willing to engage in. While sympathetic café owners still provide access to activists without collecting this information, it nevertheless forms an additional hurdle to spreading information by creating a general environment characterized by the threat of surveillance, coercion, and arrest. The reduction in the number of locations where unfettered internet access is available for a low cost can only reduce the network transmission capabilities of the technology and interfere with the ability of organizers to communicate and implement their plans.
  - This and everything about mobile networks is another reason of why the public needs to own a decentralised network - on 2009-10-28
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- In the US, non-generativity is related to issues of profits and corporate interest, but in Egypt it is more closely related to surveillance and control, and is the model instituted by the regime and Egyptian telecommunication companies for accessing the Internet and using mobile devices.
- The capabilities of the mobile phone can thus go in two directions, both enabling users to communicate with them and regimes to silence them – as illustrated by the events of June 2009 in Iran. When the Green Revolution took shape, the government shut down the text-messaging network [31]; Iranians were still able to access the Internet, either directly or through proxy servers, and therefore update various forms of social media communication. Yet the shutdown occurred at a critical moment during the Iranian events, preventing individuals and organizers from using their mobile phones as coordinating and frame-building devices and thus essentially crippling the capacity of mobile phones to serve as an accelerant when most needed .

Arab Media & Society - The end of the beginning: The failure of April 6th and the future of electronic activism in Egypt

A few quotes on why Internet activists and observers think 6 April failed. At page 4 and hardly any point related to tools design

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6April2008 Egypt Internet Activism

Ahmed Maher himself is alleged to have sought cash from Freedom House, an organization believed to have ties to the US foreign security apparatus. Rumors of CIA involvement in the April 6^th movement crippled the activists’ credibility at a critical juncture and turned the group’s Facebook page into a battleground. Group leaders denied they had worked with Freedom House and reaffirmed their commitment to barring foreign involvement in the movement, but the damage appeared to have already been done.[18] One activist told me that while opposition forces are happy to accept technical assistance from foreign promoters of democracy, the acceptance of cash from organizations with known agendas can be deadly for the public credibility of organizers.[19]
Ethan Zuckerman points to the problem of “serial activists”, who jump from cause to cause and join group after group – Gaza, April 6^th, freeing Ayman Nour – without ever making a real investment of time or energy in any of them.[21]
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- According to one of April 6^th’s senior members, the movement maintains only about 2,000 full-time members on the ground.[22]
- The April 6^th movement eventually grasped this commitment problem and created a web presence [23] to complement its Facebook profile, but even these technologies in tandem can't mobilize people without concomitant movement on the ground.
- And in addition to engendering low levels of commitment, features of Facebook’s interface can actually undermine its utility under certain circumstances and be counterproductive to effective online organizing. Particularly at the height of a crisis, for example, the “wall” of a group and the main Facebook status update page of an individual can be inundated with messages. “In that flood of data, it’s possible to lose key messages,” contends Zuckerman.[24]

09 Jul 09

Facebook | أسراء عبد الفتاح وميلاد جديد ببور سعيد

مظاهرة بمناسبة عيد ميلاد إسراء عبد الفتاح

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Egypt 6April2008 Facebook

04 Jul 09

بهدوء: التغيير بين الهمبرجر و طاجن البامية باللحمة الجملى - 1

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Egypt 6April2008 Kifaya Democracy Activism

28 Jun 09

بيان حول ما تنشره بعض الصحف لتشويه صورة الحركة « شباب 6 ابريل

"ووضح في الاجتماع ان كل من طالب باقالة احمد ماهر هم مجموعة صغيرة اغلبهم ينتمون الى حزب العمل المجمد"

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6April2008

المجمد
- ما هو لو فاهمين يبقوا خطر، و لو مش فاهمين يبقوا أخطر. - on 2009-06-28
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17 Jun 09

Twitter / dona: @alaa is he talking about ...

Referring to Facebook Israa. Hehe

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6April2008 Alaa

02 Apr 09

egyworkers عــمـــال مـــصــــر: استعدادا ل6 ابريل 2009 : إعلان الطوارئ في المحلة والعمال يرفضون المشاركة ويهددون بالإضراب يوم 13 أبريل

كريم البحيري عن الخلافات بين إسراء و ماهر

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Egypt 6April2008 6April2009 Activism

31 Mar 09

Twitter / Amr Gharbeia: Twitter will be down Sunda ...

Twitter will be down Sunday 0700:0830. Bad timing for the strike in Egypt.

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6April2008 Twitter

28 Mar 09

egyworkers عــمـــال مـــصــــر: رسالة من معتقل سابق الى من يدعون انهم نجوم 6 ابريل

كريم البحيري عن أحمد نصار و إسراء عبد الفتاح

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Egypt 6April2008

27 Feb 09

المصرى اليوم - «نور» يترافع عن نفسه أمام القضاء الإدارى فى قضية الإفراج الشرطى

أيمن نور عين إسراء عبد الفتاح منسقة الحركات الجديدة

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AymanNour Egypt Facebook 6April2008

فى سياق آخر، اختار أيمن نور، إسراء عبدالفتاح، التى أطلقت الدعوة لإضراب ٦ أبريل، لتشكيل مكتب فنى من شباب حزب «الغد» وحركة ٦ أبريل، تكون مهمته مد جسور الاتصال مع وسائل الإعلام والقوى السياسية والحركات الاجتماعية.
فى سياق آخر، اختار أيمن نور، إسراء عبدالفتاح، التى أطلقت الدعوة لإضراب ٦ أبريل، لتشكيل مكتب فنى من شباب حزب «الغد» وحركة ٦ أبريل، تكون مهمته مد جسور الاتصال مع وسائل الإعلام والقوى السياسية والحركات الاجتماعية.