Egyptian Demonstrators Use of Twitter: Tactics, Mobilization, and Safety (original) (raw)
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This paper uses Gallup poll data to assess two narratives that have crystallized around the 2011 Egyptian uprising: (1) New electronic communications media constituted an important and independent cause of the protests in so far as they enhanced the capacity of demonstrators to extend protest networks, express outrage, organize events, and warn comrades of real-time threats. (2) Net of other factors, new electronic communications media played a relatively minor role in the uprising because they are low-cost, low-risk means of involvement that attract many sympathetic onlookers who are not prepared to engage in high-risk activism. Examining the independent effects of a host of factors associated with high-risk movement activism, the paper concludes that using some new electronic communications media was associated with being a demonstrator. However, grievances, structural availability, and network connections were more important than was the use of new electronic communications media in distinguishing demonstrators from sympathetic onlookers. Thus, although both narratives have some validity, they must both be qualified.
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Despite the controversial name of “Twitter revolution”, which media referred to during the 2011 Tunisian or Egyptian uprisings, research revealed that only a very small amount of citizens actively used this social platform in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. However, although Facebook and traditional mass media reach a much broader audience, social scientists emphasised the qualitative – rather than quantitative – impact of Twitter, in framing and reporting local media events (Eltantawy and Wiest 2011; Meraz and Papacharissi, 2013). Studies also indicate that Twitter users in the Middle East manifest a particular interest for political topics (Salem and Mourtada, 2011). The strategic features of this communication channel along with the fact that Twitter’s penetration kept increasing over the months that followed the revolutions makes it a significant tool for political campaigns. Drawing on my PhD research, this paper will highlight the way political officials, such as candidates of the 2012 Egyptian presidential campaign, applied Twitter to promote their political programme. I will examine this set of tweets in relation with the way activists and national bloggers have been reporting the 2012-2013 Egyptian crisis. Furthermore, I will address the contribution of Twitter in the presidential campaign, comparing it with other communication devices and campaigning strategies.
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British Journal of Political Science, 2018
Drawing on evidence from the 2011 Egyptian uprising, this article demonstrates how the use of two social media platforms – Facebook and Twitter – contributed to a discrete mobilizational outcome: the staging of a successful first protest in a revolutionary cascade, referred to here as 'first-mover mobilization'. Specifically, it argues that these two platforms facilitated the staging of a large, nationwide and seemingly leaderless protest on 25 January 2011, which signaled to hesitant but sympathetic Egyptians that a revolution might be in the making. It draws on qualitative and quantitative evidence, including interviews, social media data and surveys, to analyze three mechanisms that linked these platforms to the success of the January 25 protest: (1) protester recruitment, (2) protest planning and coordination, and (3) live updating about protest logistics. The article not only contributes to debates about the role of the Internet in the Arab Spring and other recent waves of mobilization, but also demonstrates how scholarship on the Internet in politics might move toward making more discrete, empirically grounded causal claims.
The tendency by governments to censor Internet operations especially in times of crisis as witnessed in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa, has evoked considerable concern among civil rights groups across the globe over the threats against online activism for regime change. It is feared that the same technical measures could be applied in other countries in similar emergency situations. There have been predictions that the Internet would serve as a regime-changing tool for the masses especially against totalitarian governments; but there are also arguments to the contrary. While the Optimists opine that the Internet is a veritable revolutionary tool for regime change given its efficacy in quick information dissemination for mass mobilisation; the Pessimists contend that the Internet is not an effective instrument of regime change due to high level of government censorship. In the light of Egypt's civil unrests, we examined the rights of the citizens and the government in the use of the internet for online activism as well as the extent to which the internet can facilitate regime change. We argued that the internet plays critical roles in causing regime change; however, in as much as the citizens have their rights to use the internet for online activism, the government also has the obligation to regulate and control the use in the interest of national security, but not to the extent of shutting down the entire internet operating system of a country. It is therefore recommended that instead of the government to use technical measures to censor the citizens internet operations, they should rather apply legal options.
Facebook and Twitter as Platforms for Human Good: A Case of Egypt Uprising, 2011
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Through wider and rapid dissemination of information, social media sites (Facebook and Twitter in this article) influence the psychology of the users, making them ready for the collective action. This article analyses the role played by Facebook and Twitter in bringing about political change in Egypt during the Egyptian Uprising of 2011. Drawing insights from social media studies and Foucauldian discourse of power, this article exposes the tussle between the autocratic Egyptian government led by the then president Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian citizens and scrutinizes the horizontal connectivity and dissemination of information, citizen journalism, pervasive nature of power, and multiple resistance sites. It concludes that in materializing their aspirations of right, liberation, and justice along with the economic, social, and political revamp, Egyptian civilians took recourse in digital technologies and freed themselves from thirty-years long dictatorship of Mubarak.
As the number of microblogging tools and social media users rapidly increases, it is important to understand who and what is being disseminated. One emerging area of research is the use of Twitter as a means for the masses to voice dissent and mobilize action. This study analyzed the features of the top 30 tweeters and top 30 retweeted users during the 2011 protests in Egypt. By conducting a content analysis of tweets from the #jan25 data set (N = 600), we found that the characteristics of the source including location, media affiliation, longer account duration, and number of followers positively impacted retweetability. Power users or those tweeters sending the most messages were more likely to be based in Egypt than in other areas. Users who retweet messages seem to constitute a different group with more passive characteristics. The content of messages such as language intensity, information or URL sharing, and call to action were not significant predictors of retweetability. Because tweets had the same underlying theme, that is, dissent against the prevailing government, characteristics of the source differentiated the top tweeters from the top retweeted users.