Revolt in Egypt due to social networksite Twitter

Tilburg - That Social Media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have a great impact on our daily lifes is shown by the events of last week in Egypt. On the Internet people even talk about a “Twitter revolution”, but that sounds a bit premature to me. Yes, Social media are prominent in the information flows from Egypt, but Mubarak has not yet been overthrown by the influences of it.  

In this case I support freelance journalist Dirk Wanrooij’s reasoning of this Twitter-phenomenon. He wrote on the NRC Next-blog: "Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Al-Jazeera are not the cause of the uprising in Egypt. They only have a catalytic effect."

The Egyptian demonstrators used Facebook and Twitter four days in a row to mobilize friends and family to protest against the dictatorial regime of President Hosni Mubarak. Through these messages on social networks Egyptians knew where the demonstrations began and what route would be followed. That is why the Egyptian government closed the access to the Internet in an attempt to curb protests.

Still, there was also another stream of information available from the ordinary Egyptians who communicate through Twitter and Facebook. On many blogs you could follow from minute to minute what was happening in Egypt, because Video Items of the riots and violence were captured by mobile phones and also used as evidence to show the whole world the violent actions of the government. In that way you can see social media as a huge arsenal of communication and information resources.

The messages disseminated through sites such as Twitter are spreading like wildfire in a short amount of time on the Web. The protesters achieved their own benefit, but also journalists made good use of this information. Not only they could find out where the riots took place, but even after it became dangerous for the Western journalists in the hotbed of riots, the social media were consulted by television stations worldwide as a information source. 

Freelance journalist Dirk Wanrooij went through the streets of Cairo and noted there that "the majority of people on the street is not using Twitter or Facebook and they probably have no idea what it means. They are driven by a lack of freedom and be inspired by neighbors, friends and colleagues."

Yet, it is not the first time that social media are used in revolts. During the Iranian revolt of 2009, Twitter is by far the most important channel. Not only for the mutual mobilization, but also for disseminating information. Video recordings made by Iranian residents caused a global wave of outrage at the barbaric methods of the Iranian regime.