Cyber Activism Essay

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Cyber activism during the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions
“They are both ONE uprising. One world, one revolution. Often people think in terms of “Contagion” or something. But, in reality, we have been ready, we people of the Internet, for a revolution to start anywhere in the Arab world. We’ve been supporting each other and trying hard since a long time, and you know how important Internet was for the revolution” replied, the Tunisian Minister of Youth and Sports , Slim Amamou when asked about the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions (as cited in Filiu, 2011). In 2011, a volcano of keyboard-generated revolutions erupted in the Arab world, driven by one secret ingredient: ‘cyber activism’ (Ghrer, 2013). The first setting sailed in Tunisia on the 14th of January 2011, when President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, stepped down after a whirlwind twenty-eight-day series of protests (Filiu, 2011). The next stop was in Egypt on the 25th of January 2011 when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, following an eighteen-day protest across the entire country (Filiu, 2011). Several factors trailed behind the success of such historic mind blowing revolutions, specifically cyber activism which served as a vital ingredient for such revolutions. According to Howard (as cited in Eaton, 2013), cyber activism is “the act of using the Internet to advance a political cause that is difficult to advance offline”. In simpler words, cyber activism can be defined as the use social media, in particular Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, as a call for political transformation and reform brought by emotion evoking videos, comments and pictures. Many believe that social mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, served as the common grounds which united the voices of...

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...tical transformation. Social media helped to create a virtual platform, where people can embrace the freedom of speech sharing their ideas on the country political standing, on their struggles, thus shedding light on people’s frustration and struggles. Famous Facebook pages such as the WAAKS, and the 2008 April 6 movement both served as important sources for information during the Egyptian uprising, informing people on every detail witnessed on the street, encouraging them to protest. Also through the use Twitter, protests successfully managed to organize and mobilize protests, for example the ‘#Jan25’ was used a sort of identification, for the protests taking place, this hinting that the protest was approaching. Last but not least, social media served as an essential for evoking major political transformation, as witnessed in the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

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