Hermes Draper's List: The Egyptian Revolution

• Khaled Said, 28, died on June 6 in Alexandria, Egypt. Witnesses and rights groups say that two policemen dragged him out of an Internet cafe and beat him to death. Said was apparently targeted because he intended to post a video that allegedly showed police offers dividing the spoils of a drug bust. Official autopsies said he choked on a plastic roll of drugs, but a cellphone picture of Said’s battered face challenged the government’s  assertions.
• Said's death at the hands of police gave new momentum to calls for political change in Egypt. Protest movements are notoriously hard to organize in Egypt, where an emergency law has been in effect since 1981. The emergency law grants police and security forces discretionary power to arrest and detain anyone without charge and bans mass assemblies.
• There is a main website - with Arabic and English versions - called "We are all Khaled Said" that shares news updates, logistical information for protests, and links to videos of gatherings.
• There is also a Facebook group (an Arabic and an English version) used too mobilize supporters and share information, like rules of engagement for protests. The Arabic page has over 200,000 members!
• YouTube videos have been an important tool used to share images of police brutality, as well as participants in the silent stands. The group has a dedicated YouTube channel and many supporters have uploaded videos of the various protests held around Egypt. A video was even made by a rap group about Khaled Said.
• "We are all Khaled Said" also started a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #khaledsaid on July 22. The aim of the campaign was to raise awareness worldwide about torture in Egypt and the police's treatment of Egyptians. While the hashtag did not become a trending topic, organizers reported that the received over 10,000 visits on the group webpage on a single day. You can follow the group at http://twitter.com/elshaheeed.
• Demonstrations known as "silent stands" have been held around the country - and in other parts of the world - to express public anger over Said's death. Some are joining demonstrations out of a sense of shock over the death; others are coming to protest police brutality and overall political situation in Egypt.
• June 14 - The first silent stand was held in Cairo and Alexandria.
• June 25 -

  Over 4,000 Egyptians participated in Cairo alone, including Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog.
• July 9 - Participants again wore black and gathered around Egypt to participate in the Third Silent Stand.
• July 23 - A "Khaled for Vendetta" video was made to raise awareness ahead of the fourth stand and to invite people to participate. The date July 23 holds significance, as its the anniversay of the nonviolent Egyptian white revolution that took place in 1952 when the Egyptian army toppled the King of Egypt. Organizers referred to this stand as "The Black Silent Revolution."
• August 20 - A fifth silent stand was organized, and individuals participated not only in Egypt, but around the world. This date was also the 10th of Ramadan. Many gathered on the street in front of the home of Khaled Said's family.
• Thousands have peacefully taken part in the silent stands. Police have attacked participants in some instances. Media attention around these stands has generated a lot of international interest in what is happening on the ground in Egypt.
• U.S. State Dept. Assistant Secretary Philip J. Crowley said in a speech:"Turning to the Middle East, the United States is concerned about the death of Khaled Mohammed Said at the hands of Egyptian security forces in Alexandria on June 6th. We have been in touch with the Egyptian Government on this matter. We welcome the Government’s announcement of a full investigation and we urge that it be done transparently and in a manner consistent with the serious allegations that have been made.

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• CAIRO - It was sparked on social-networking sites, and inspired by a revolution in Tunisia. In 18 days, it grew into something astounding - a leaderless people's movement that at every turn outsmarted a government with an almost unblemished 30-year record of suppressing dissent.
• On Friday, pro-democracy demonstrators achieved through peaceful and determined protests what only a month ago had seemed impossible: They forced President Hosni Mubarak from office.
• In the end, images of riot police and pro-government thugs attacking and killing unarmed civilians are what broke Mubarak. Rather than force people off the streets through intimidation, the violence simply galvanized more to join the revolt.
• The government's efforts to control the message by cutting off the Internet and phones, and by arresting scores of journalists and activists, similarly backfired. Each day, ever greater numbers of Egyptians turned out to the square to see for themselves the movement reshaping their country.
• Despite the government's efforts to sow violence that could be pinned on the demonstrators, the vast majority did not take the bait.
• More than 300 people were killed over the past 18 days, with each death giving the movement more momentum. In Tahrir Square, posters of the dead grace every corner. A curly haired girl named Sally, a man named Hassan, a boy named Mohammed.

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• With peace, Egyptians overthrow a dictator
• On Friday night in Tahrir Square, the euphoria was intoxicating and the joy unparalleled, as women and men made up songs to celebrate their victory. The Qasr Al Nil Bridge that leads to the square was filled with people blowing horns and swaying to the music blasting from cars.
• People wept for the dead, but with pride and a sense of nationalism that they said they had never had before. A circle of men and women chanted to the beat of a drum, "You can sleep peacefully now," a reference to those who were killed.
• Nearby, Marwan Saleh, 34, stood silent and absorbed every moment. By phone, he updated his Facebook status to tell people about the joy, the flags waving in the air and the songs being sung about the love of Egypt. For now the battle was over. The battle was won, he said.
• "Today, finally, after all these days, after all the injustices, after all the killing. Now it's time to enjoy and celebrate," he said. "We will never forget the people who died for this."

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• • THe 2011 eGyPTIAN revolution, which drew inspiration from protests in Tunisia and led to widespread anti- government uprisings throughout north Africa and the Middle East, began with protests on January
    25, 2011, culminating february 11, 2011 with the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
• • While some analysts said social media like Twitter and facebook were not critical to the revolution,4 others, including a number of activists on the scene, credit social media with helping the movement achieve critical mass.
• • To get a sense of how Twitter activity re- flected the events of the revolution, we selected six Egypt-related topics that trended at least three days during the period January 25–February 11, 2011, where a trending topic was a subject identified by Twitter that notably in- creased how much it was discussed.
• • Figure 1a lists the volume of tweets per day, Figure 1b lists cumulative tweets, and Table 1 outlines some of the revolution’s major events, along with the number of tweets and the av- erage sentiment for four Egypt-related Twitter topics. Note that we collected this data in real time in our lab for all trending topics available from Twitter.
• • The first day the topics trended co- incided with the January 25 “Day of Rage” protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, with the Cairo topic showing mostly negative sentiment at the time. On January 27, the Egyptian government began limiting access to social media and the Internet within the country’s national network. Later, many of the tweets were likely tweeted from outside Egypt. 
• • On January 29, Mubarak fired his cabinet and installed Omar Suleiman as vice president, coincid- ing with a peak in the number of
    tweets on the topics of “egypt” and “cairo” and a peak in sentiment on “egyptians.” Immediately afterward, the sentiment value for most topics decreased, possibly due to decreased interest outside Egypt or the realiza- tion that Mubarak would not willingly step aside as president. The Egyptian government ended its blockade of
    Internet traffic February 2, coincid- ing with a significant spike in num- ber of tweets and negative sentiment on the topic of Tahrir. While most Egypt-related topics stopped trending February 4, termed by the protesters the “Day of Departure,” the protests continued until Mubarak’s eventual resignation February 11.
• • For each day the topics in Figure 1 were trending, we identified the top 10 most influential users worldwide. Table 2 lists the people and organi- zations that influenced these topics
    most, along with a breakdown of in- fluential users in Figure 2a. Many us- ers at the top of these lists belonged to major news organizations, including Al Jazeera and CNN, though New York- based Egyptian journalist Mona Elt- ahawyb established herself as a trusted source, with influence across a number of topics, and the most influential sin- gle user worldwide on Egyptian topics during the revolution.
• • Almost two-thirds of the most pop- ular tweets on Egypt-related topics were news, communicating important updates on unfolding events, while inspirational and humor tweets each represented 15%–20% of the popular tweets. The topic “egyptians” was the source of more than half of the inspi- rational tweets.

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• Wael Ghonim: Inside the Egyptian revolution
• This is Revolution 2.0.  No one was a hero. No one was a hero.  Because everyone was a hero.  Everyone has done something.
• A page was created.  An anonymous administrator  was basically inviting people to join the page,  and there was no plan.  "What are we going to do?" "I don't know."  In a few days, tens of thousands of people there --  angry Egyptians  who were asking the ministry of interior affairs,  "Enough.  Get those who killed this guy.  To just bring them to justice."  But of course, they don't listen.
• And when I saw the street on the 25th,  I went back and said,  "Egypt before the 25th  is never going to be Egypt after the 25th.  The revolution is happening.  This is not the end,  this is the beginning of the end."
• And in the Egyptian revolution,  the Revolution 2.0,  everyone has contributed something,  small or big. They contributed something --  to bring us  one of the most inspiring stories  in the history of mankind  when it comes to revolutions.
• People were taking shots and photos;  people were reporting violations of human rights in Egypt;  people were suggesting ideas,  they were actually voting on ideas,  and then they were executing the ideas; people were creating videos.  Everything was done by the people to the people,  and that's the power of the Internet.  There was no leader.  The leader was everyone on that page.  The Tunisian experiment, as Amir was saying,  inspired all of us, showed us that there is a way.  Yes we can.

• A lot of us, we're not really happy  when we see a video of an Egyptian man  who's eating the trash  while others are stealing  billions of Egyptian pounds  from the wealth of the country.  The Internet has played a great role,  helping these people to speak up their minds,  to collaborate together, to start thinking together.  It was an educational campaign. 
• They want to make people live in fear.  And that psychological barrier of fear  had worked for so many years,  and here comes the Internet,  technology, BlackBerry, SMS.  It's helping all of us to connect.  Platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook  were helping us a lot  because it basically gave us the impression that, "Wow, I'm not alone.  There are a lot of people who are frustrated."  There are lots of people who are frustrated.
• Because of the Internet, the truth prevailed  and everyone knew the truth.  And everyone started to think that "this guy could be my brother."  He was a middle-class guy.  His photo was remembered by all of us.
• My last word to you is a statement I believe in,  which Egyptians have proven to be true,  that the power of the people  is much stronger than the people in power.

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• • This is the original face book page that started the movement for revolution in the Egyptian government.
    
    Note that it has 3.4 million likes.

• • This is the english version of the original Facebook page that that helped full the movement of the Egyptian Revolution.
• We are all Khaled Said
• 337,310 likes · 730 talking about this

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