Egyptian cyber activist Wael Ghonim, who shot to international fame after being arrested at the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, is facing criticism from the very same Egyptians who earlier championed for his release.

In a series of tweets today, Ghonim urged the protesters to put their country's economic prosperity ahead of their revolutionary agenda.

He wrote:

In a follow up tweet, he explained:

He further added:

Ghonim concludes:

This series of tweets was faced with a backlash from Egyptian tweeps, and others from the region, who criticised Ghonim of not speaking up against the Army Council and its actions against protesters, despite the influence he carries, with his almost 156,000 followers on Twitter. The tweets can be found under the hashtag #UnfollowedGhonimBecause

Ghonim shone after his release from prison, when it was discovered that he was the administrator of the We Are All Khaled Saeed page on Facebook, which sparked the Egyptian revolution on January 25, 2011. Saeed is a young Egyptian man from Alexandria who was killed after being beaten up by the police. Like Mohammed Bou Azizi of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, his murder angered Egyptians and made them rally around the We Are All Khaled Saeed, which along with other groups, started to plot for a Tunisia-like revolution in Egypt.

Comments on Ghonim's stance came from Egypt and beyond.

Nourhan Ramadan says:

Arab Spring adds:

#UnfollowedGhonimBecause he seems to care about ‘economy' more human rights. He doesn't know economy prospers when u have human rights

And Karem Said explains:

 i #UnfollowedGhonimBecause he has no vision for a revolutionary transformation of politics and the economy beyond promoting ICTs #egypt

Karima Momen continues:

I #UnfollowedGhonimBecause when i heard about the book. u've been the whole time imprisoned. what do u actually have to say in it!

Amira Khalil is more direct in her criticism and says:

 i #UnfollowedGhonimBecause he's a sell-out. Falling for the “economic stability” manipulative tactic!! Forgetting what #Jan25 is all about.

Mohammed Al Daaysi from Bahrain tweets:

Kuwaiti Mona Kareem adds:

 nothing personal about #UnfollowedGhonimBecause and no one saying unpatriotic. It's just he's famous & he should speak against the army

And Israeli Elizabeth Tsurkov continues:

 I #UnfollowedGhonimBecause his tweets are incredibly corny & foster myths like “revolution 2.0″. Still have respect for what the guy did. 

Others did not share this point of view.

M_Ibrahim_M notes:

Sherif El Saadani adds:

And Haisam Yehia concludes:

 I find it so ironic that @Ghonim tweet of the day is: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation & 5 minutes to ruin it”. Today of all days.

Chirpinator shares a more comprehensive list of Twitter reactions here.

  ChangeInLibya   
   
  Hashtag your country! " I am #Libyan and I recognize the #TNC of #libya as the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people " RT :)      about 1 hour ago  via web       
•       Reply   
•       Retweet   
•   31 Retweets

  DocRichard   
   
  @ChangeInLibya: I am British and I recognize the #TNC of #libya as the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people -pls RT      13 minutes ago  via Twitter for iPhone       
•       Reply   
•       Retweet   
•   0 Retweet

  monaeltahawy   
   
  RT @Tripolitanian: Come on ppl, lets get this spreading! Sign petition 4 #NFZ #Libya by #UN - Over 800,000 have signed! http://t.co/p5jCRpb      about 1 hour ago  via Twitter for iPhone       
•       Reply   
•       Retweet   
•   30 Retweets

"If there was no social networks it would have never been sparked," he said.

"Because the whole thing before the revolution was the most critical thing. Without Facebook, without Twitter, without Google, without You Tube, this would have never happened."

Egypt's revolution is in danger of being hijacked by the army, key political activists have warned, as concrete details of the country's democratic transition period were revealed for the first time.

Judge Tarek al-Beshry, a moderate Islamic thinker, announced that he had been selected by the military to head a constitutional reform panel. Its proposals will be put to a national referendum in two months' time. The formation of the panel comes after high-ranking army officers met with selected youth activists on Sunday and promised them that the process of transferring power to a civilian government is now under way.

But the Guardian has learned that despite public pronouncements of faith in the military's intentions, elements of Egypt's fractured political opposition are deeply concerned about the army's unilateral declarations of reform and the apparent unwillingness of senior officers to open up sustained and transparent negotiations with those who helped organise the revolution.

"We need the army to recognise that this is a revolution, and they can't implement all these changes on their own," said Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent youth activist. "The military are the custodians of this particular stage in the process, and we're fine with that, but it has to be temporary.

"To work out what comes next there has to be a real civilian cabinet, of our own choosing, one that has some sort of public consensus behind it - not just unilateral communiques from army officers."

There is consternation that the army is taking such a hard line on the country's burgeoning wave of strikes, which has seen workers seeking not just to improve their economic conditions, but also to purge institutions of bosses they accuse of being corrupt and closely aligned to the old regime.

"These protests aren't just wage-specific," said Abd El Fattah. "They're also about people at ground level wanting to continue the work of the revolution, pushing out regime cronies and reclaiming institutions like the professional syndicates and university departments that have long been commandeered by the state."

The ruling military council has called on "noble Egyptians" to end all strikes immediately.

Egypt's post-Mubarak political landscape has grown increasingly confused in the past few days, as the largely discredited formal opposition parties of the old era seek to reposition themselves as populist movements. Meanwhile younger, online-based groups are trying to capitalise on their momentum by forming their own political vehicles, and the previously outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has announced that it will form a legal political party.

After decades of stagnation, the country's political spectrum is desperately trying to catch up with the largely leaderless events of the past few weeks and accommodate the millions of Egyptians politicised by Mubarak's fall. "The current 'opposition' does not represent a fraction of those who participated in this revolution and engaged with Tahrir and other protest sites," said Abd El Fattah. But with a myriad of short-lived alliances and counter-alliances developing among opposition forces in recent days, uncertainty about the country's political future still prevails.

"Despite various attempts to form a united front, there's nothing of the kind at this point - just a lot of division," said Shadi Hamid, an Egypt expert at the Brookings Doha Centre. "You've got numerous groups, numerous coalitions, and everyone is meeting with everyone else. There's a sense of organisational chaos. Everyone wants a piece of the revolution."

This week a number of formal opposition parties, including the liberal Wafd party and the leftist Tagammu party, came together with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and a wide range of youth movements to try and elect a steering committee that could speak with a unified voice to the army commanders and negotiate the formation of a transitional government and presidential council.

Yet those plans have been overtaken by the speed of the military's own independent proclamations on reform, raising fears that civilian voices are being shut out of the transitional process.

Some senior figures inside the coalition believe the army is deliberately holding high-profile meetings with individuals such as Google executive Wael Ghonim and the 6 April youth movement founder Ahmed Maher in an effort to appear receptive to alternative views, but without developing any sustainable mechanism through which non-military forces can play a genuine role in political reform.

"The military are talking to one or two 'faces of the revolution' that have no actual negotiating experience and have not been mandated by anyone to speak on the people's behalf," claimed one person involved with the new coalition. "It's all very well for them to be apparently implementing our demands, but why are we being given no say in the process?

"They are talking about constitutional amendments, but most people here want a completely new constitution that limits the power of the presidency. They are talking about elections in a few months, and yet our political culture is still full of division and corruption.

"Many of us are now realising that a very well thought-out plan is unfolding step by step from the military, who of course have done very well out of the political and economic status quo. These guys are expert strategic planners after all, and with the help of some elements of the old regime and some small elements of the co-opted opposition, they're trying to develop a system that looks vaguely democratic but in reality just entrenches their own privileges."

By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers

  CAIRO — Three days after Hosni Mubarak's resignation, Egypt's political opposition was bitterly divided over its next moves as the army expanded its near-total control over the country with no overt signs that it's included anti-government protesters in its decision-making.

A major meeting of opposition leaders and protesters on Monday quickly devolved into arguments and diatribes, underscoring how difficult it will be for the diverse, leaderless revolutionary movement to coalesce around a political platform before elections that Egypt's military caretakers have pledged to hold.

While one set of opposition figures battled itself, a group of seven young, middle-class democracy activists said that they'd met with senior members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The protesters said the generals voiced their "sincere intention to preserve the gains of the revolution."

But the army, which Friday took power from Mubarak and since has issued only brief statements of its plans for the transition to a democratically elected government, made no mention of the meeting in its only statement of the day — a call for an end to growing labor protests.

The army has met some of the key demands of the protesters who ousted Mubarak. It's dissolved his rubber-stamp parliament and suspended the flawed constitution. Many Egyptians consider the military the country's most credible public institution after it remained neutral during the 18-day popular uprising and refused to fire on protesters.

But the military leadership — which includes former members of the Mubarak regime and is headed by his defense minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi — so far has emphasized stability over transparency.

Two army major-generals told the protesters they met Sunday — including Wael Ghonim, the 30-year-old Google executive who was held in secret detention and since has become the best known face of the uprising — that they'd appointed a committee of people "known for integrity and honor" to draft constitutional amendments.

In a Facebook post, Ghonim said the amendments would be voted on in a referendum in two months and that he took the military at its word, noting that "for the first time we are sitting with an Egyptian official who listens more than talks."

Others, however, expressed worry at the army's statement Sunday that it would run the country "for six months or until parliamentary and presidential elections are held," which seemed almost purposefully vague.

The army Monday accused labor protesters of "disturbing and disrupting" the country with their demands for better salaries and called on them to return to their jobs. In Cairo, a protest of about 200 workers outside the state-controlled Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions devolved into window smashing and shoving.

The army's moves so far were criticized at Monday's raucous meeting of opposition members, but participants failed to agree on any next steps and said they'd reconvene Tuesday.

"The statement by the military today was a real threat," said Abdel Khalek Farouq, a member of the National Association for Change, an opposition umbrella group. "The old guard is still in power and they are strong. . . . Authority is tempting, and they might stay in power."

The two-hour gathering at the offices of the Democratic Front party in a middle-class section of western Cairo was one of several such meetings that have been held by various opposition groupings over the past three days. It was called to nominate committees to open negotiations with the military — which the military hasn't explicitly asked for — but instead it demonstrated Egypt's polyglot opposition scene at its most disjointed and chaotic.

The popular uprising that occupied downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square, beat back pro-Mubarak gangs and transfixed the world for nearly three weeks is at best only tangentially affiliated with Egypt's formal opposition, which is made up of establishment figures and never seriously challenged Mubarak's grip on power.

The opposition parties have stepped in to negotiate on behalf of the uprising, which never appointed a leader.

In the meeting, the difference between the two populations was obvious, with the younger, fresher-faced protesters wearing Palestinian-inspired keffiyehs and looking bored while the older opposition figures in suits and ties bickered about committees.

Several dozen participants couldn't agree from the start on the size or composition of the committees, and a request for nominees ballooned to more than 340 names. After 45 minutes, more than half the room was standing up to ask a question, with many people shouting over each other, and the chairmen asked television cameras to be turned off.

"This is a closed meeting," one said.

Several attendees said that the chairmen — including Mohamed al Beltagi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest formal opposition group — appeared to disregard complaints that the group included a disproportionately high number of people from Cairo and very few from the provinces.

"It's a mess. What happened in there was a rape of the revolution," said Alber Saber Zaki, a 26-year-old who slept much of the past three weeks in Tahrir Square. He learned about the meeting through a friend, but left halfway through.

"The people here are just elites," he said. "They don't represent the popular revolt."

That rift is perhaps not surprising. The protest movement was largely organized via Facebook and other social media by middle-class Egyptians, while the less privileged masses formed the vast majority of people in Tahrir Square and other protest sites.

The labor movement, which is expected to defy the military and return to striking Tuesday, also has little in common with people such as Ghonim, and their demands for better pay and working conditions weren't addressed by Mubarak's resignation.

"The meeting last night was to try to break us apart," Ahmed Salah, a founder of the April 6 youth movement that helped to organize the recent protests, said of the meeting between the army officials and Ghonim's group.

Some worried that if elections were held in six months, the same opposition figures who contested and lost past elections — or members of a reconstituted National Democratic Party, Mubarak's party — would rise again and the protest movement would fail to consolidate the gains of the revolution.

"The opposition is always divided," Saleh said. "It's part of the old system that includes the regime. It's the way Egypt has been the last four decades — corrupt to the core."

It didn't take long before some of the younger faces in the crowd grew frustrated and left. The cramped, low-ceilinged meeting room must have felt a long way from the freewheeling idealism of Tahrir Square.

After an hour, one man in his 30s stood up from the back of the room to leave. He turned to the young man seated behind him and said, "See you at the next revolution."

BY L. GORDON CROVITZ 

If journalism is the rough draft of history, in this fast-moving era it may already be time to settle the question of the Internet's role in the Egyptian revolt. To this end, consider the leading role of a 30-year-old Google executive.

Wael Ghonim seems an unlikely symbol of revolution. He studied computer engineering at Cairo University and earned an M.B.A. in marketing and finance from the American University in Cairo. At Google he is product and marketing manager for the Middle East and North Africa.

Shortly after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power on Friday, activist Wael Ghonim spoke with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and credited Facebook with the success of the Egyptian people's uprising.

Ghonim, a marketing manager for Google, played a key role in organizing the January 25 protest by reaching out to Egyptian youths on Facebook. Shortly after that first protest, Ghonim was arrested in Cairo and imprisoned for 12 days.

But as a company, Facebook Inc. - and to a similar extent Twitter Inc. - has taken great pains to appear neutral about the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East because taking too much credit could leave the Palo Alto company open to blame or being shut off from other countries.

And that, experts say, would not help its long-term business prospects.

"They don't want to be put in the position where they are held responsible ... if something negative or catastrophic happened," said David Bell, a professor of marketing management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. "They could be vulnerable to misinformation as well. People could be saying things (on Facebook or Twitter) that are not necessarily true."

Political influence

From the rise of President Obama to the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Facebook and Twitter have become major conduits for news, information and commentary that united grassroots movements to change and challenge governments.

In 2008, Obama's successful run for the White House was helped by his campaign's extensive use of social networking. At the time, Facebook had about 100 million members worldwide, a number that is now estimated at 600 million.

That same year, a young engineer in Colombia mobilized millions of people by starting a Facebook group to protest the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.

That call to action "showed how the power of an individual with a single, powerful idea and message can make things happen," said Lafayette social media marketing expert Andy Smith, who with wife Jennifer Aaker co-wrote "The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change."

Twitter, the San Francisco microblogging service with more than 175 million members, played a key role in spreading news of a 2009 post-election protest in Iran. Social networking has also been a force in recent anti-government uprisings in Tunisia and Syria.

But the most dramatic use of social media by anti-government demonstrators came in the past month in Egypt.

Key Facebook page

An anti-Mubarak Facebook page started by Ghonim, a Google Inc. marketing manager in the Middle East, was credited with helping embolden millions of Egyptians to take to the streets to demand that Mubarak step down after three decades of authoritarian rule.

Even when the government made the unprecedented move to shut the country's Internet connections with the outside world for several days, engineers from Twitter and Mountain View's Google developed a "Speak-to-Tweet" service, giving people on the inside a way to send voice messages transmitted by Twitter.

Several memorable news photos showed handmade cardboard signs and wall paintings that read "Thank you, Facebook" in Arabic and English.

China concerns

Those photos and stories might not go over well in countries like China, which is seen as a potentially large new market for both Facebook and Twitter. Both are now blocked by the government, although Zuckerberg visited China in December.

"If they want to get into China, then they'd want to get somewhat of a good relationship with the government," said Zsolt Katona, a UC Berkeley Haas School of Business assistant professor who studies social networks.

Meanwhile, governments in Egypt's neighboring Arab countries might view the "incursion" of Facebook, Twitter and Google as a symbol of U.S. interference in their affairs, said Smith, who runs Vonavona Ventures, a marketing consulting firm.

Also, Smith wondered if that golden feeling about Facebook in Egypt would remain if conditions in the country are worse in two years.

Showing restraint

Therefore, he said Facebook and Twitter executives need to remain circumspect with their public statements about Egypt as they "thread the needle" of international diplomacy.

Facebook - which frequently touts its corporate belief that more communication and social interaction will make the world a better place - has publicized how political groups and elected officials in the United States use the network. The company also has executives based in Washington, D.C.

Yet Facebook has repeatedly fallen back upon one basic, non-inflammatory statement about Egypt, issued when Internet access was cut:

"A world without the Internet is unimaginable. Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community."

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment further for this story.

Twitter list

Twitter last week posted a staff-picked list of Twitter accounts to follow that provided "perspectives from in and around Egypt."

However, a Twitter representative also declined to comment specifically about Egypt, although he noted that co-founder Biz Stone co-authored a company blog post with a carefully crafted generic message supporting freedom of expression:

"Some Tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users. We don't always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content."

Americans' dilemma

Involvement in international affairs has always been a pesky problem for American companies, especially for those that operate on an Internet that reaches into countries that operate under differing social norms and government restrictions.

"When you're a global organization, the way you operate effectively in the United States may not be the way you can effectively operate in Egypt" or elsewhere, said Bell of the Wharton school. "For some of it, you almost have to figure it out on the fly."

Facebook and Twitter are quickly maturing into corporations that have similar public responsibilities as traditional newspapers because they are both conduits of vital public information and for-profit companies that depend on advertising for revenues.

So, Smith said, "they have to be seen as relatively neutral, but in favor of getting the truth out."

Mubarak said that he is "totally committed to fulfilling all the promises" that he has earlier made regarding constitutional and political reform.

"I have laid down a vision ... to exit the current crisis, and to realise the demands voiced by the youth and citizens ... without undermining the constitution in a manner that ensures the stability of our society," he said.

Mubarak said he had "initiated a very constructive national dialogue ... and this dialogue has yielded preliminary agreement in stances and views".

A state of emergency, which has been in place since Mubarak took power 30 years ago, remains in place, though the president promised to lift it as some unspecified point in the future.

"I will remain adamant to shoulder my responsibility, protecting the constitution and safeguarding the interests of Egyptians [until the next elections].

"This is the oath I have taken before God and the nation, and I will continue to keep this oath," he said.

Mubarak said the current "moment was not against my personality, against Hosni Mubarak", and concluded by saying that he would not leave Egyptian soil until he was "buried under it".

Mubarak's comments were not well-received by hundreds of thousands gathered at Cairo's Tahrir [Liberation] Square and in other cities, who erupted into angry chants against him. Pro-democracy protesters had been expecting Mubarak to resign, and their mood of celebration quickly turned to extreme anger as they heard the president's speech.

Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Liberation Square said the "mood completely altered as the president progressed with his speech", with protesters expressing "frustration and anger" at him.

Hundreds took off their shoes and waved them angrily at a screen showing Mubarak's speech, shouting "Leave, leave!"

Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition figure and former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, responded to the speech by saying "Egypt will explode. Army must save the country now", on the microblogging website Twitter.

'Go back home'

Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, addressed the nation in a televised address shortly after Mubarak's speech, and called on protesters to "go back home" and "go back to work".

He said he had been delegated by the president "the responsibilities to safeguard the stability of Egypt, to safeguard its ... assets ... to restore peace and security to the Egyptian public, and to restore the normal way of life".

He said that a process of dialogue with the opposition had yielded positive results, and that "a roadmap has been laid down to achieve the majority of demands".

The vice-president said that steps had to be taken to "safeguard the revolution of the youth", but also called for protesters to "join hands" with the government, rather than risk "chaos".

He told Egyptians "not [to] listen to satellite television stations, whose main purpose is to fuel sedition and to drive a wedge among people".

Army meeting

Earlier, the Supreme Council of Egyptian Armed Forces had met to discuss the ongoing protests against Mubarak's government.

In a statement entitled 'Communique Number One', televised on state television, the army said it had convened the meeting response to the current political turmoil, and that it would continue to convene such meetings.

Thurday's meeting was chaired by Mohamed Tantawi, the defence minister, rather than Mubarak, who, as president, would normally have headed the meeting.

"Based on the responsibility of the armed forces and its commitment to protect the people and its keenness to protect the nation... and in support of the legitimate demands of the people [the army] will continue meeting on a continuous basis to examine measures to be taken to protect the nation and its gains and the ambitions of the great Egyptian people," the statement.

Tens of thousands poured into Tahrir Square after the army statement was televised. Thousands also gathered in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, our correspondent there said.

Earlier, Hassan al-Roweni, an Egyptian army commander, told protesters in the square that "everything you want will be realised".

Hassam Badrawi, the secretary general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), told the BBC and Channel 4 News earlier on that he expected Mubarak to hand over his powers to Omar Suleiman, the vice-president during his address.

"I think the right thing to do now is to take the action that would satisfy ... protesters," Badrawi told BBC television in a live interview.

Ahmed Shafiq, the country's prime minister, also told the BBC that the president may step down on Thursday evening, and that the situation would be "clarified soon". He told the Reuters news agency, however, that Mubarak remained in control, and that "everything is still in the hands of the president".

However, Anas el-Fekky, Egypt's information minister, denied all reports of Mubarak resigning from early in the day.

"The president is still in power and he is not stepping down," el-Fekky told Reuters. "The president is not stepping down and everything you heard in the media is a rumour."

Mubarak met with Suleiman, the vice-president, at the presidential palace ahead of his address.

Protesters expected resignation

Mahmoud Zaher, a retired general in the Egyptian army, told Al Jazeera earlier in the day that Mubarak's absence from the army meeting was a "clear and strong indication that [Mubarak] is no longer present", implying that the Egyptian president was not playing a role in governance any longer.

Protesters had earlier responded to statements from political leaders as indicating that they had been successful in their key demand of wanting Mubarak to step down.

Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who has played a key role in helping protesters get organised, said on the microblogging site Twitter on Thursday evening: "Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the brave young Egyptians."

Ahead of the speech, Jacky Rowland, our correspondent in Tahrir Square, described the atmosphere as "electric", with "standing room only" in the central Cairo area. She said that thousands gathered there were "celebrating a victory which has been anticipated, rather than actually achieved".

In Alexandria, Jamal ElShayyal, our correspondent, said the atmosphere turned "from joyous to now furious" as Mubarak completed his speech.

Missing Google marketing executive Wael Ghonim has been released from Egyptian custody, according to the U.S. State Department.

“We have indeed received confirmation of his release,” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner tells the Wall Street Journal.

Training Central for digital activists is the Alliance for Youth Movement (AYM), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, connecting, and supporting digital activists from around the world. 

The April 6 group, identified as the main mastermind behind the violent protests in Egypt has roots in the Alliance of AYM—tentacles of which reach all the way into the US State Department. 

Cohen’s influential AYM is home to Ahmed Salah, co-founder of the Shabab 6 April; Movement and an AYM Senior Fellow.

AYM do international conferences in GoToMeeting type style.

“We believe that technology empowers unlikely leaders to do amazing things,” said Jason Liebman, 35, a founder of the Alliance who also co-founded HowCast Media, a web site of how-to videos.  “Today, with only a laptop computer or a mobile phone, people can connect, organize and share at unprecedented levels.”

Meanwhile, not since Tokyo Rose has information from afar been manipulated with such ease.

Generations indoctrinated by the US’s left-leaning public education system are now 30-year-old Internet executives who wield a power far more deadly than the globe’s most dreaded Armies.

And they don’t need a face mask to hide their identities.

See list of the Alliance for Youth Movement corporate partnerships here:

Copyright © Canada Free Press
 Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck.

Since he disappeared on Jan. 28, Mr. Ghonim, 30, has emerged as a symbol for the protest movement’s young, digital-savvy organizers. During the interview on a popular television show, he said he had been kidnapped and held blindfolded by Egyptian authorities.

 Afterward, hundreds of Egyptians took to Twitter and the Internet, calling on him to become one of their new leaders.

“Please do not make me a hero,” Mr. Ghonim said in a voice trembling with emotion, and later completely breaking down when told of the hundreds of people who have died in clashes since the Jan. 25 protests began. “I want to express my condolences for all the Egyptians who died.”

 “We were all down there for peaceful demonstrations,” he added. “The heroes were the ones on the street.”

She said many young people identified with Mr. Said and were outraged by his death and how the police had handled it. She said that there were many Facebook pages, but that it was the page that Mr. Ghonim started that gained momentum.

 “It was the most popular,” she said. “It gave a space for the young people to interact with each other and to plan together.”