Notes From How Facebook Changed Our World

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 1^st 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

· 25^th 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. 25^th 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