Max Gromann's List: Egypt Mubarak

• Two minutes after he started his Facebook page, 300 people had joined it. Three months later, that number had grown to more than 250,000. What bubbled up online inevitably spilled onto the streets, starting with a series of “Silent Stands” that culminated in a massive and historic rally at Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.
• In turn, Ghonim — who was arrested during the height of the protests — reluctantly became one of the leading voices of the Arab Spring.

• "If you want to liberate a government, give them the Internet."
• During an interview on CNN, Nicholas Thompson said posters on Facebook and Twitter were saying things like, "Get together in twenty minutes" or "the revolution is coming."
• Leaders in Egypt must have felt the threat of Facebook and Twitter and other social media outlets because they shut down the Internet and soon after cell phone lines in an attempt to stop the protests from growing.

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• That is why the speed of the initial response curve is crucial to whether a protest will survive or not. In Egypt, activists protested for many years on January 25 before 2011. But there were too few of them (100-150 per year) to sustain against the repression. On 2011, the initial day, there were about 5000-10000 people in Tahrir. It

• Inspired by the events in Tunisia, Egyptians gathered to protest on January 25, the national holiday Police Day, calling for an end to corruption, injustice, poor economic conditions, and the 30-year-old regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
• grew into a national revolutionary movement that in 18 days removed Mubarak and his National Democratic Party (NDP) from power.
• met with repression and violence by police and supporters of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

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• Being capable of sharing an immense amount of uncensored and accurate information throughout social networking sites has contributed to the cause of many Arab Spring activists. Through social networking sites, Arab Spring activists have not only gained the power to overthrow powerful dictatorship, but also helped Arab civilians become aware of the underground communities that exist and are made up of their brothers, and others willing to listen to their stories.
• “We use Facebook to schedule the protests” an Arab Spring activist from Egypt announced “and [we use] Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.”
• . It has given most people in the Arab world the knowledge that they are not alone, that there are others experiencing just as much brutality, just as much hardships, just as much lack of justice. Social networks "for the first time provided activists with an opportunity to quickly disseminate information while bypassing government restrictions,"

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• This was particularly the case for the Egyptian uprising, which was dubbed the Facebook Revolution
• Perhaps the true achievement of social media during the halcyon days of the revolution was in introducing the world to a panoply of liberal Egyptian activists who altered western perceptions about the Middle East. Young and charismatic, they spoke fluent English and were bursting with self confidence. They tweeted live from Tahrir Square, posting photos to Flickr and videos to YouTube, providing a first-hand, real time account of a popular uprising to an audience of millions.
• The Syrian uprising has degenerated into an armed insurgency and a depressing bloodbath
• At techPresident we wrote recently about an extraordinary case in Egypt, where President Morsi issued major policy announcements via his party's Facebook page, abjuring the conventional protocol of calling a press conference and addressing the television cameras.
• So about 70 or 80 percent of digital communication is 'dark,' — i.e., not visible. If you're not a friend of a person, not 'in the network,' you don't see the discussions that are going on. This is enough of a filter to keep out the casual person who's googling for information."

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