TUNISIA
·
The internet allowed
events to be recorded hour by hour
·
The Arab Spring –
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya
·
December 2010; The
suicide of a fruit seller in Sidi Bouzid sparked
uprising
o
He, plus other,
continued supporting taunting from higher people
·
The internet revolution
tipped balance of power
·
The day after he
committed suicide, 100’s of people gathered where he set himself
alight
·
This ultimately became a
street war between the police and people who were sticking up for
him.
·
Tunisian State TV
reported nothing that was going on#
o
The press is highly
censored.
·
However, citizens
captured it on their phones
o
They had to avoid being
arrested/shot
·
People shared the
footage though Facebook
o
1 in 5 (2 million)
Tunisians have Facebook
§
Many people thought it
was trivial hence why they don’t have it.
·
(Assad, the PM of Syria)
(Banali – PM of Tunisia)
·
2 normal every day
citizen bloggers blogged about it.
o
¼ had
broadband
o
90% had mobile
phones
·
Benali had censored all
political websites
·
From them 2 people
sharing their footage through Facebook, they spread virally,
rapidly
o
They were picked up by
Al Jazera
·
They had also set up
software on their mobile phones to set up a live stream.
·
Benali fled to Saudi
Arabia
·
It only took 28 days
from the 1st protest to the collapse of the
regime
o
Copycat
demonstration
§
Theory – audiences
influenced by what they see
·
New and digital media
allowed the protest to speed up pace.
EGYPT
·
Cairo, political
activists watched with awe
o
Tunisia made them aware
of what they could accomplish
·
However, Mubarak, the PM
of Egypt would be harder to crack
·
Activists found the
internet the safest way to communicate with one another
·
Khaled Syeed – Martyr –
was beaten by police as he exposed the corrupt nature of the
government
o
This rallied support for
a revolution
·
5 million facebook
users
·
Protests were planned by
activists
o
These were inspired by
events in Tunisia
·
20% of Egyptians had
access to interent
o
Therefore, they used
taxi drivers to spread their message
·
25th January
2011 – Beginnings of uprising
·
Obama supported
Mubarak
o
This made many Egyptians
angry
o
They felt content for
Obama
o
These were reasons
for a more active
protest
·
The government switched
off communication – internet and mobile networks
o
People cut off from each
other. 25th Feb
·
However, they didn’t
really need it for their plan
o
Only used it to deceive
police of where the demonstrations were going to be.
·
As people didn’t know
what was happening, the actually went outside to see.
·
The internet later went
back on
o
People received many
patriotic messages from the government but they did not
care
·
The army, strongest
institution in Egypt
o
Paid 1.3 billion to
empower it.
·
As they finally sided
with the protestors – Mubarak had no other choice but to step down
