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Abstract
This article examines the use of digital media in the 2011 Egyptian revolution (25 January–11 February), termed by many analysts and commentators a “Facebook revolution”, “Twitter revolution”, “digital revolution” or “electronic revolution”. Such appellations highlight the role of the youth who organized and mobilized for the revolution and the essential role played by digital media. Disengaging from the controversial debate over whether Egypt’s revolution was instigated by social media or simply used them for its purposes, the article demonstrates the uncontestable role that social networks, text messages, and satellite news channels played as a tool of control and manipulation, on the one hand, and a mode of resistance, on the other. Delineating some key reasons why the Egyptian revolution came to be associated with digital media, the article shows the government’s reaction to the threat posed by such media through analysis of a key moment on the night of 27 and 28 January 2011, when the Egyptian government decided to cut off all Internet and smart phone connections. Through a detailed chronology of the development of events during that period of blockage, the article analyzes the government’s decision along two axes: manipulation through blockage and manipulation through propaganda and brainwashing. It concludes by showing how the government’s attempts to sabotage the revolution came in the end to be used subversively by the protestors as means of resistance. It injected the revolution with more momentum, and in fact inadvertently led to its success.
Notes
1. For more on the widespread use of Facebook and social media in the Arab world, and Egypt in particular, see Linda Herrera’s description of her research conducted with university students in Cairo and Alexandria in 2010:Many of them were using a new colloquial term, “El-Face” when talking about Facebook. These Facebook users carry traits of being politically savvy, bold, creative, outward looking, group regulating, and ethical. And their numbers are fast growing. In March 2008 there were some 822,560 users. After the Arabic version of Facebook was launched in March of 2009 usership jumped. By 1 July 2010 there were some 3,581,460 Facebook members, making for an increase of 357.2% in a two year period. The site has become increasingly Arabized, though many users show dexterity in using both English and Arabic. (N. pag.)
2. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s ally and Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany, known for his brainwashing tactics and attacks on German Jews.
3. Herrera expresses similar views concerning the use of digital media in the current surge of revolutions in the Arab world, writing that[S]ocial movements belong to people and not to communication tools and technologies. Facebook, like cell phones, the internet, and twitter, do not have agency, a moral universe, and are not predisposed to any particular ideological or political orientation. They are what people make of them. (N. pag.) For similar views on people as “heroes” see MacKinnon.
4. For more information on Khaled Said and his death as a result of police brutality, visit his Facebook group “We Are All Khaled Said.”
5. Giglio offers more insight into Wael Ghonim’s online activism and his role in instigating the Egyptian revolution.
6. Prominent among the groups calling for such strikes is the “6th of April Youth Movement” created on Facebook upon the famous strikes of the workers of the Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra factory, Egypt’s main textile producer, on 6 April 2008, one of whose main activists is Asmaa Mahfouz. The latter is credited with sparking the Egyptian revolution because of a clip posted on YouTube. The Khaled Said group and others – such as Kefaya (Enough) – have, as Soueif points out above, teamed up at various points to seek and mobilize for common goals. For more on Kefaya, see Oweidat et al.
7. Similar threats by al-Qaeda had been circulating against Egyptian Copts since October 2010. See, for instance, “Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi Affiliate”.
8. Much has been made recently of the role played by the former Interior Minister, Habib Al-Adly (currently on trial), in not only turning a blind eye to but also in fact plotting the bombing in Alexandria to foment more sectarian strife among Egyptians (Smith n. pag.).
9. See, for example, Le Coz’s words on the Egyptian government’s treatment of Al Jazeera reporters:On January 31, five foreign and Egyptian journalists from the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera were interrogated by the Egyptian military, and their equipment was confiscated. They were released, but the day before Egyptian authorities ordered the closure of the network’s Cairo office. (N. pag.)Similar actions are reported to have taken place against Al Arabiya’s reporters, and both channels saw various attempts at distorting their transmission signals in Egypt over the 18 days of protests in Egypt. On 30 January, Al Jazeera transmission had been interrupted and the channel had to change its transmission frequencies or air through other channels many times over subsequent days. Al Arabiya, on the other hand, received outright threats that its transmission would be blocked if it did not abstain from spreading “rumors” and “lies” – words used to describe what people automatically interpreted as the truth.
10. This was even further intensified in light of what the government had done since the beginning of the revolution. For the government had systematically released prisoners (estimated at 24,000 in number according to various reports) all over the country, and let hordes of thugs (previously used to terrorize citizens and aid National Democratic Party candidates undeservedly win counterfeit parliamentary elections) loose, furnished with ambulance cars, sticks, and knives, high on prohibited medical tranquilizers, to attack civilians on the streets and in their homes. The government’s implicit message was that chaos was a direct result of protests, as opposed to the alleged “stability” Mubarak promised. The people’s response has been accurately detailed by Huda Lutfi:[L]ocal groups of citizens’ watches were formed to protect each neighborhood. [ … ] These groups of young men are volunteering all their time and energy to protect us against such violence. As the attacks continued, the [ … ] committee[s] of young people began to erect barricades on [ … ] street[s] for more protection; they created checkpoints and organized night shifts to prevent further attacks. Despite such efforts, looting and burning of property continued. (N. pag.)
11. The number of comedy shows that were later produced to satirize such media coverage and staged phone calls gives the measure of their intensity and the Egyptian media’s blatant lies aimed at supporting the regime that has created and used them for its own benefits. See, for instance, the “Bassem Youssef Show” (8 episodes to date), a YouTube Jon Stewart-style show that parodies many of these TV programs and lies.
12. The following, reported by Al Jazeera, is but one example of what the regime sought to conceal: “Egypt’s interior ministry also warns of ‘decisive measures’ [ … ] Egypt remains on edge, as police and protesters clash throughout the country. Eleven civilians are killed in Suez and 170 injured. [ … ] At least 1,030 people get injured countrywide” (“Timeline” n. pag.).
13. Of course, the full extent of massacres, deaths, and casualties was not revealed until much later. What was first thought to be five people dead in Cairo was later revised to more than 300 deaths. To date, the number of protesters who have been killed at the hands of proponents of the former regime and its police forces has reached 864, and there are still no accurate statistics on this.
14. In addition, several Facebook “events”, “pages” and “groups” have called for boycotting and/or suing the three major mobile phone companies in Egypt for cutting off Internet and smart phone services. See, for instance, “Boycott Vodafone Egypt For One Day Campaign” (http://ar-ar.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Vodafone-Egypt-For-One-Day-Campaign/131101710294953) and “The Campaign for Suing Telecommunications Companies for Cutting off Connections During the Revolution (Arabic)” (http://ar-ar.facebook.com/pages/181628558549147/>
15. This is by no means a comprehensive catalogue of all such text messages, for two reasons. First, different users would sometimes receive different messages depending on their service providers. Second, because such messages were sent to all users of a given service, this would sometimes cause congestion resulting in some users not receiving a particular message that others would receive, and much of the information on such messages depended on word of mouth.
16. Idle and Nunns document the role of “citizen journalism”, focusing on mobile-phone and Twitter activism during the revolution.
