Erik Schemonia's List: Digital Citizenship Revolution

• For 18 days, thousands of young, educated and frustrated Egyptians called for their president's resignation.

   

  Before they descended on Tahrir Square, they rallied on Facebook.
• "These weren't necessarily people with political goals," said Shel Holtz of Holtz Communication and Technology. "They just wanted to see change."
• An anti-Hosni Mubarak Facebook page, started by a Google engineer, incited rage among Egypt's youth which led to the protests.

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• CAIRO, May 15 2013 (IPS) - More than two years after social media networks helped Egyptian activists organise massive street protests that led to the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak, these networks are now playing a less positive role, often serving as a platform for incitement, rumour-mongering and downright disinformation.

   

  “The same social networks that activists used in unison to bring down Mubarak are now being used to score short-term political goals, manipulate public opinion, and even incite violence,” Adel Abdel-Saddiq, social media expert at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told IPS.
• During the 18-day Tahrir Square uprising in early 2011, social networking websites, most notably Twitter and Facebook, allowed anti-regime activists to organise mass rallies while also providing platforms for articulating political demands.
• “Social media now plays a more destructive role, often being used to provoke anger and hatred and spread unsubstantiated rumour,” said Abdel-Saddiq. “Since the revolution, we’ve seen it used to incite protesters against police, the secular opposition against Islamist groups, and Muslims against Christians and vice versa.”

• Abdel-Saddiq went on to recall several instances in which false reports appeared online with the apparent intention of inciting violence.

   

  “Anonymous users have posted reports online, which later proved false, stating that ‘security forces are firing on unarmed protesters’, for example, or that ‘Muslims are attacking Christians’,” he described.

   

  “Once this is done, it’s a simple matter, again with the use of social media networks, to shepherd large numbers of angry protesters to specified venues, thereby creating fertile ground for violent clashes,” Abdel-Saddiq explained.

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• The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 (Arabic: ثورة 25 يناير 0e thawret 25 yanāyir, Revolution of 25 of January) took place following a popular uprising that began on 25 January 2011. It was a diverse movement of demonstrations, marches, plaza occupations, riots, non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience and labor strikes. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
• On 11 February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak would be stepping down as president and turning power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Mubarak resigned from office.^[

• Sandmonkey Mahmoud Salem
   For when and where the revolution will be and other improtant info, go here http://bit.ly/Jan25egypt
   21:51:18 Jan 24

• #Egypt was the most popular hashtag on Twitter in 2011, according to a new list published by the San Francisco-based social media company.

• Hashtags

   
   

  1. #egypt

   

  2. #tigerblood

   

  3. #threewordstoliveby

   

  4. #idontunderstandwhy

   

  5. #japan

   

  6. #improudtosay

   

  7. #superbowl

   

  8. #jan25