Mycal Alo's List: 3.6 digital citizenship

• In the Egyptian uprising, digital technologies were used as both a catalyst for the revolution as well as a tool of repression.
• When the first “Day of Anger” was organized in Egypt following the Tunisian uprising, word was largely spread across the country by a series of Facebook event pages. Because Egyptian television and radio were state-controlled, the internet became a means to publicize the demonstrations and evade state censorship. As a result, the Egyptian and other Arab uprisings have largely been described as a series of “Twitter” or “Facebook” revolutions.
• Implied by these descriptions is that these American-based social networking websites have manifested as a force for global democracy, allowing repressed peoples to find each other and network in ways which were previously impossible or too dangerous under authoritarian regimes. While it’s undeniable that social networking was a prominent tool in the uprisings, it is an oversimplification to say it was the catalyst in the mobilizations and overlooks the conditions and access of the majority of Arab participants.

• On January 28th, 2011, internet and cellphone services were cut in a desperate attempt to stop the escalating protests. But the consequences of this action actually increased mobilizations. As Yale graduate student Navid Hassanpour wrote in his study, “Media Disruption Exacerbates Revolutionary Unrest”:

   

  The disruption of cellphone [sic] coverage and Internet on the 28th exacerbated the unrest in at least three major ways. It implicated many apolitical citizens unaware of or uninterested in the unrest; it forced more face-to-face communication, i.e., more physical presence in streets; and finally it effectively decentralized the rebellion on the 28th through new hybrid communication tactics, producing a quagmire much harder to control and repress than one massive gathering in Tahrir.
• • The action taken place because of the abuse of digital citizenship.
• Surveillance and the resulting detentions of those perceived as central organizers of the uprising along with widespread censorship of news and communication formulated one of the key strategies of repression employed by Mubarak’s regime. The decision to cut off communication technology could have just as easily had disastrous effects on mobilization had people not used alternative means of organization. The authorities’ ability to so easily disable these services was as a direct result of access to sophisticated Western technology. Likewise, many organizers were quickly arrested–or worse, disappeared–in the days following the initial demonstrations, largely thanks to digital surveillance technologies operated by the government and supplied by U.S. private contractors.
• • US governemtn called hypocrites because of the US foreign policy. Technology can help others to know when help is genuinely offered. 
• While the U.S. government eventually lent its support to the pro-democracy protests, its longtime support for Mubarak and its massive aid to the Egyptian military highlighted the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy. This was only made increasingly clear when the surveillance and monitoring of activists by security forces was largely made possible by technology provided by US contractors under the tacit approval of the U.S. government. Most notably, the company Narus–started by Israeli security experts, and now a Boeing subsidiary–had sold the Egyptian government what are known as “Deep Packet Inspection” devices, which allow for monitoring and recording internet traffic including e-mail, website visits, online chats, as well as text messages.
• His arrest and many others resulted directly from government tracking of online data enabled by surveillance technologies supplied by companies like Narus.
• While the U.S. government was quick to champion certain uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa as a triumph of democracy it has failed to acknowledge its complicity in the repression of activists in countries where the uprisings have failed, most notably Syria and Bahrain. In these instances we see two very distinct types of assistance coming from the U.S.: willing and unintended.
• • When technology works for us we accept, but when it doesn't it's an inconvenience. 
• While the Egyptian government attempted to use digital technologies as a way to repress the uprisings, networks of activists from around the world quickly mobilized in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement. Egypt’s decision to shut off Internet access in the country was unprecedented, and it was the first time in history that an entire country disconnected itself from the Internet.
• • The result of digital citizenship.
• Whether these tools help or hinder global social movements and uprisings will depend on the participants’ understanding of these assets, and their abilities to adapt to efforts of state policing and control.
• • the importance of how to be a better digital citizen.

13 more annotations...

• Rapid internet interaction through Twitter and Facebook gave information to the protesters about how to counteract the security forces as they tried to disperse the protesters, maps showing locations for protest meetings and practical advice about such things as what to do when teargas is used against groups of protesters. All of these things increased the pressure that the protest movements were able to exert on their governments. The governments in Tunisia and Egypt were very unhappy about the often brutal images of repression of the protests by government security forces and both governments tried to block the social-networking sites. In Tunisia, the effect was to increase the size of protest demonstrations and the Tunisian president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was forced to change his strategy. He apologized for blocking the sites and reopened them. He offered to open talks with the dissident groups but by that time it was too late to save his government. He resigned on 16 January and an interim coalition government was set up.
• Technology can provide solutions to many problems but its use can also vary from one culture to another. In the Western world, Twitter is a device that is most frequently used to comment on relatively minor media or personal events, such as the behaviour of a particular celebrity. In Egypt and Tunisia its use proved to be much more political and effective – not social networking, just networking.
• • Technology differs from one country to another.

1 more annotation...

• As one blogger wrote, “Let the Tunisian people show the example for the Arab world – no more dictators!”^[1]
• At the same time, bloggers were using the internet to document human rights violations and publicize incidents of police brutality.
• In June 2010, when a young Egyptian named Khaled Said was beaten to death by police in Alexandria, activists spread images of his battered face across the internet and founded a Facebook page called “We Are All Khaled Said,” which quickly became a major hub for mobilizing support and spreading news.^[4] Opposition groups such as Kefaya and the April 6 Youth Movement also organized protests and developed online networks through Facebook, blogs, and Twitter. Finally, in the wake of the Tunisian uprising, young Egyptians decided to seize the opportunity to push for a democratic breakthrough.
• “Our mass protest on the 25th will be the beginning of the end, the end of all the silence and submission…and the beginning of a new page,” the group auspiciously proclaimed. “We’ll reclaim all our rights and refuse to be silent after this day.”^[7]
• Ultimately, it was Google executive Wael Ghonim who became a symbolic leader of the revolution. As one of the founders of the “We Are All Khaled Said” Facebook group, he had already played a role in the organization of the protests.^[20] After the “Day of Anger” on January 28, he was imprisoned for 12 days; immediately after his release, he recorded an emotional interview on live TV in which he declared, “We are all young people who have done this because we love Egypt…I am not a hero. The heroes are the ones who took to the streets, who joined the demonstrations, who sacrificed their lives.”^[21] At the same time, Ghonim maintained that he was merely one out of many: “I say that our revolution is like Wikipedia…Everyone is contributing content.”^[22]

3 more annotations...