Right now, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is considering blocking Facebook, the social networking website that has become a popular hangout for twentysomethings worldwide and a favorite venue for Egypt's disaffected youth. The reason: In April, one group of young citizens mobilized 80,000 supporters to protest rising food prices.
Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers' strike and protest. The Egyptian government, which has governed for 25 years under emergency law and doesn't allow more than five people to gather unregistered, hit back hard, jailing young dissidents and torturing Ahmed Maher, a young activist who tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a second demonstration in early May.
Despite these setbacks, the "Facebook movement" in Egypt is significant for several reasons. First, it challenges the perception that there is no prospect for independent, secular opposition in the country. The majority of Egyptians are under 30 and have known no other ruler than Mubarak. They have not seen real political parties because the government has long restricted opposition parties and free media.
The Facebook movement engaged large numbers of youth for the first time. Second, the Web offers a safe political space -- a role the mosque has traditionally played in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has for decades been the only viable opposition.
With Facebook, young secular people can communicate, build relationships and express their opinions freely. (Significantly, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the successful April demonstration but supported the unsuccessful May event.) Every member in the 100,000-strong online community could be, at any given moment, a leader of a movement. Third, engaging Egypt's youth is an important item on the agenda of Mubarak's son, Gamal, as he works to gain support for his succession to power.
As a young politician, Gamal established the Future Generation Foundation in 2000, which incubated many of the current leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party and the new Cabinet. Facebook activists and their supporters should be able to turn to this group for support.
A few weeks ago, Belal Diab, a 20-year-old college student, interrupted one of the Egyptian prime minister's speeches to protest the arrests of Facebook activists, shouting: "Look who are you fighting; it is us, the younger generation who stood with you and supported you!"
Nevertheless, Facebook activists are being targeted by government-based media campaigns defaming the website and the youth activists who use it. The government also warns media not to talk about the phenomenon. I saw the heavy-handed efforts of the government while recording a TV show with Maher. During the taping, Egyptian police broke into the studio, threatened the station manager and forced the guest outside the room.
What can be done to help this movement? The international community and the U.S. government should pressure the Egyptian government to support Internet freedom and keep Facebook accessible to Egyptians. One young activist, Ahmad Samih, is campaigning to gain local and international support to prevent the Egyptian government from blocking Facebook.
So far, nearly 20 Egyptian human rights organizations are supporting this cause. International human rights organizations should publicly join in that show of support. Egyptian democrats are "Facebooking" their advocacy in order to escape heavy recriminations. It would be shameful for the international community not to stand up on their behalf against a government that seeks to deny them even that small space to express themselves.
Otherwise, Mubarak's self-fulfilling prophesy as the only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to hold Egypt back from the democracy its people deserve.
-- Sherif Mansour, LA Times
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Egypt: A Facebook Revolution
When most people log onto Facebook, the thought of fermenting revolution is pretty far from their minds. But in the Middle East, and most recently in Egypt, Facebook has become an important platform for dissent in countries that routinely clampdown on liberal activists, and where the mosque has traditionally been the only outlet for venting political frustration.
Last month saw the arrest of Esra Abdel Fattah, 27, after she formed a group on Facebook calling for protests against the high price of food and other commodities in Egypt. Strike action was already planned by factory workers in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, and the Facebook group, which attracted 64,000 members, tapped into a national mood of unrest. During Fattah’s incarceration, police clashed with protestors in Mahalla, killing three; some 500 people were detained.
By the time Egyptian police freed her two weeks ago, Fattah, an active online activist and member of the liberal al-Ghad political party, had become something of a cyber folk hero, feted by Middle Eastern bloggers and tech-minded students. A second Facebook group began calling for the release of Fattah and the other detainees, and for further protests on May 4th. A Cairo University student even heckled the Egyptian prime minister as he gave a speech at the campus on role of the internet as a communication tool:
“Prime Minister, release all the… detainees,” he said. “They are the same young people who used the Internet to express their opinions."
But on her release, Fattah gave a press conference in which she admitted her Facebook activities were a mistake, and that she would no longer take part in protest networking.
It’s not difficult to imagine the level of intimidation she must have faced from the Egyptian regime, one of the more thuggish in the region. Last week, another Facebook activist Ahmed Mayer Ibrahim was arrested by Egyptian police for his membership of May 4th protest group (the protest led to some shops closing, and a subdued mood on the streets, but on the whole protestors stayed home). The 27-year-old civil engineer was stripped naked and beaten intermittently for 12 hours before being released without charge.
All of this has left Egyptian bloggers and other Facebook activists taking stock of their sudden elevation to the forefront of cyber protest, and the government’s brutal response.Some, like Mohammed Nabil, a Cairo University student and Facebook activist, remain undeterred and point to a glorious new era of online activism.
“The people who are signing up to protest on Facebook aren’t the sort of people who’d normally get involved in politics. In the past the activists have often been Islamists, but now the Internet is reaching out to a new generation,” said Nabil.
He added that the government would find it impossible to police the internet.
But others are not so sure that Facebook activism isn’t just window-dressing for the more the more important task of “on-the-ground” activism. What scares the government, they say, is not the activities of the privileged middle class who have internet access, but the millions of impoverished laborers, factory hands, and the unemployed. So far the jury is out on Facebook’s ability to mobilize the masses: the April protests that Fattah called coincided with pre-arranged strike plans among workers, but the more purely Facebook phenomenon strike called earlier this month largely petered out.
The popular blog 3arabawy has been keen to play down the role of Facebook:
“I hope our peers in the activist community will wake up and realize now the limitations of online activism…” writes Hossam el-Hamalawy, the blog’s author. “Let’s get back to organizing on the ground, fellow bloggers, and leave behind these cyber-fantasies.”
But although Facebook activism may not be able to spark protest – at least not yet – it has succeeded in advertising and amplifying Egyptian unrest. It may also succeed in aligning radical workers with the dissenting voices in the middle class.
The Egyptian government is certainly worried enough by Facebook to take action against the likes of Fattah (two other online activists who were detained at the same time are still in custody). But in a country where the average age is just 24, and more than 20% of the country lives below the poverty line, the government faces an impossible task in trying to stifle protest.
And it may be that Facebook, like the mosque, provides an essential pressure valve for frustration and discontent.
-- Washington Post
Last month saw the arrest of Esra Abdel Fattah, 27, after she formed a group on Facebook calling for protests against the high price of food and other commodities in Egypt. Strike action was already planned by factory workers in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla al-Kobra, and the Facebook group, which attracted 64,000 members, tapped into a national mood of unrest. During Fattah’s incarceration, police clashed with protestors in Mahalla, killing three; some 500 people were detained.
By the time Egyptian police freed her two weeks ago, Fattah, an active online activist and member of the liberal al-Ghad political party, had become something of a cyber folk hero, feted by Middle Eastern bloggers and tech-minded students. A second Facebook group began calling for the release of Fattah and the other detainees, and for further protests on May 4th. A Cairo University student even heckled the Egyptian prime minister as he gave a speech at the campus on role of the internet as a communication tool:
“Prime Minister, release all the… detainees,” he said. “They are the same young people who used the Internet to express their opinions."
But on her release, Fattah gave a press conference in which she admitted her Facebook activities were a mistake, and that she would no longer take part in protest networking.
It’s not difficult to imagine the level of intimidation she must have faced from the Egyptian regime, one of the more thuggish in the region. Last week, another Facebook activist Ahmed Mayer Ibrahim was arrested by Egyptian police for his membership of May 4th protest group (the protest led to some shops closing, and a subdued mood on the streets, but on the whole protestors stayed home). The 27-year-old civil engineer was stripped naked and beaten intermittently for 12 hours before being released without charge.
All of this has left Egyptian bloggers and other Facebook activists taking stock of their sudden elevation to the forefront of cyber protest, and the government’s brutal response.Some, like Mohammed Nabil, a Cairo University student and Facebook activist, remain undeterred and point to a glorious new era of online activism.
“The people who are signing up to protest on Facebook aren’t the sort of people who’d normally get involved in politics. In the past the activists have often been Islamists, but now the Internet is reaching out to a new generation,” said Nabil.
He added that the government would find it impossible to police the internet.
But others are not so sure that Facebook activism isn’t just window-dressing for the more the more important task of “on-the-ground” activism. What scares the government, they say, is not the activities of the privileged middle class who have internet access, but the millions of impoverished laborers, factory hands, and the unemployed. So far the jury is out on Facebook’s ability to mobilize the masses: the April protests that Fattah called coincided with pre-arranged strike plans among workers, but the more purely Facebook phenomenon strike called earlier this month largely petered out.
The popular blog 3arabawy has been keen to play down the role of Facebook:
“I hope our peers in the activist community will wake up and realize now the limitations of online activism…” writes Hossam el-Hamalawy, the blog’s author. “Let’s get back to organizing on the ground, fellow bloggers, and leave behind these cyber-fantasies.”
But although Facebook activism may not be able to spark protest – at least not yet – it has succeeded in advertising and amplifying Egyptian unrest. It may also succeed in aligning radical workers with the dissenting voices in the middle class.
The Egyptian government is certainly worried enough by Facebook to take action against the likes of Fattah (two other online activists who were detained at the same time are still in custody). But in a country where the average age is just 24, and more than 20% of the country lives below the poverty line, the government faces an impossible task in trying to stifle protest.
And it may be that Facebook, like the mosque, provides an essential pressure valve for frustration and discontent.
-- Washington Post
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Egypt: Facing Facebook
Following her release from detention on 23 April Esraa Abdel-Fattah, the founder of the Facebook group "6 April: A Nationwide Strike", told newspapers that she would henceforth avoid any form of "virtual activity".
"I have not heard about any coming strike nor do I want to hear about it," she said. Her uncle has told reporters that she no longer has a computer.
Abdel-Fattah's decision to avoid politics and reluctance to talk about her detention to the press -- Al-Ahram Weekly's attempts to contact her all failed -- comes as no surprise. Although she has reportedly said that she was "treated very well" she questions why she was detained in the first place. Having spent 16 days in prison, only to be unexpectedly released last week, it is only natural that she should be cautious about expressing any public opinions on political matters.
Abdel-Fattah was originally detained on 7 April for allegedly masterminding the 6 April strike and fuelling people's intentions to peacefully protest against rising food prices. Two days later Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud announced that Abdel-Fattah would be released.
The announcement was overruled by the Interior Ministry and instead of Mahmoud's decision being implemented Abdel-Fattah disappeared for 16 days. Her horrified mother then published a paid statement on 21 April in the daily Al-Masry Al-Yom appealing "from the heart of a mother" to the "heart of President Hosni Mubarak, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, and Interior Minister Habib El-Adli," to set her daughter free. In response, perhaps, El-Adli issued an order to release Abdel-Fattah. Her detention received heavy coverage in the media and consolidated her image as a popular hero among young Egyptians.
Detention is only one card the state can play in dealing with virtual protesters. There is an ongoing debate over whether the regime intends to block, or at least strictly monitor, the Facebook pages that have become a tool in the political mobilisation of Egypt's disaffected young. Observers approached by the Weekly believe such a security-oriented step is not only destined to fail but may have drastic repercussions.
"It is unwise, not to say impossible, to deal with Egypt's virtual community with the same security-oriented mindset the state uses in confronting on-the-ground challenges," says Amr Elshobaki of Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political Studies". From a purely practical point of view, Elshobaki points out, shutting Facebook will have little impact since "the pages that are closed can easily be re-loaded on other sites."
Technology, says political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah, has provided young people with spaces that transcend the barriers that nation-states might want to impose. "There are hundreds of websites that bloggers have created so that their voices can be heard loud and clear."
Nabil Abdel-Fattah believes any attempt to block Facebook will only indicate the state's weakness and inability to confront the digital era in which we all now live. "It is as if the state can come up with nothing but old policies in facing new, revolutionary techniques. This is very unwise and will never work."
Instead of dreaming about controlling cyber space, which is impossible, they argue that the state would better spend its time considering the reasons that made what was conceived as a social utility a venue for political mobilisation in the first place. Facebook, points out Elshobaki, is popular the world over. Only in Egypt, he says, has it been so politicised, one reason being that while other countries have a variety of venues for socio- political expression, including political parties and NGOs, in Egypt this is not the case. "Young people have deserted a reality in which they knew they can change nothing and directed their efforts instead towards this virtual environment." If the state deprives them of even this form of expression then they will look to release their anger elsewhere. "They may," he concludes, "turn to violence."
That Esraa herself has been deterred by the security-oriented mentality does not, argues Nabil Abdel-Fattah, suggest that that strategy will be successful in other cases. There are "hundreds of other young Egyptians who will replace Esraa and use cyber space to express their socio- political demands; no censorship or deterrence strategies can stop them."
A day before Esraa was released, Bilal Diab, a Cairo University student, interrupted a speech delivered by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on the Internet as a tool of communication. "Prime Minister," Diab told Nazif, "release all 6 April detainees... they are the same young people who used the Internet to express their opinions..."
-- Al Ahram
"I have not heard about any coming strike nor do I want to hear about it," she said. Her uncle has told reporters that she no longer has a computer.
Abdel-Fattah's decision to avoid politics and reluctance to talk about her detention to the press -- Al-Ahram Weekly's attempts to contact her all failed -- comes as no surprise. Although she has reportedly said that she was "treated very well" she questions why she was detained in the first place. Having spent 16 days in prison, only to be unexpectedly released last week, it is only natural that she should be cautious about expressing any public opinions on political matters.
Abdel-Fattah was originally detained on 7 April for allegedly masterminding the 6 April strike and fuelling people's intentions to peacefully protest against rising food prices. Two days later Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud announced that Abdel-Fattah would be released.
The announcement was overruled by the Interior Ministry and instead of Mahmoud's decision being implemented Abdel-Fattah disappeared for 16 days. Her horrified mother then published a paid statement on 21 April in the daily Al-Masry Al-Yom appealing "from the heart of a mother" to the "heart of President Hosni Mubarak, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, and Interior Minister Habib El-Adli," to set her daughter free. In response, perhaps, El-Adli issued an order to release Abdel-Fattah. Her detention received heavy coverage in the media and consolidated her image as a popular hero among young Egyptians.
Detention is only one card the state can play in dealing with virtual protesters. There is an ongoing debate over whether the regime intends to block, or at least strictly monitor, the Facebook pages that have become a tool in the political mobilisation of Egypt's disaffected young. Observers approached by the Weekly believe such a security-oriented step is not only destined to fail but may have drastic repercussions.
"It is unwise, not to say impossible, to deal with Egypt's virtual community with the same security-oriented mindset the state uses in confronting on-the-ground challenges," says Amr Elshobaki of Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic and Political Studies". From a purely practical point of view, Elshobaki points out, shutting Facebook will have little impact since "the pages that are closed can easily be re-loaded on other sites."
Technology, says political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah, has provided young people with spaces that transcend the barriers that nation-states might want to impose. "There are hundreds of websites that bloggers have created so that their voices can be heard loud and clear."
Nabil Abdel-Fattah believes any attempt to block Facebook will only indicate the state's weakness and inability to confront the digital era in which we all now live. "It is as if the state can come up with nothing but old policies in facing new, revolutionary techniques. This is very unwise and will never work."
Instead of dreaming about controlling cyber space, which is impossible, they argue that the state would better spend its time considering the reasons that made what was conceived as a social utility a venue for political mobilisation in the first place. Facebook, points out Elshobaki, is popular the world over. Only in Egypt, he says, has it been so politicised, one reason being that while other countries have a variety of venues for socio- political expression, including political parties and NGOs, in Egypt this is not the case. "Young people have deserted a reality in which they knew they can change nothing and directed their efforts instead towards this virtual environment." If the state deprives them of even this form of expression then they will look to release their anger elsewhere. "They may," he concludes, "turn to violence."
That Esraa herself has been deterred by the security-oriented mentality does not, argues Nabil Abdel-Fattah, suggest that that strategy will be successful in other cases. There are "hundreds of other young Egyptians who will replace Esraa and use cyber space to express their socio- political demands; no censorship or deterrence strategies can stop them."
A day before Esraa was released, Bilal Diab, a Cairo University student, interrupted a speech delivered by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on the Internet as a tool of communication. "Prime Minister," Diab told Nazif, "release all 6 April detainees... they are the same young people who used the Internet to express their opinions..."
-- Al Ahram
Monday, April 28, 2008
Egypt: Egypt's Facebook Girl
In a tone that belied his excitement, a visiting journalist friend from Egypt related at great length the events of the April 6 strike in which confrontations and clashes broke out in the city.
He was particularly charged because he had images on his personal laptop that had been banned from publication in national Egyptian newspapers. The journalist's stories were incredibly interesting – especially since he had witnessed events that the media and the press did not relay to us.
However, the most compelling topic of conversation revolved around what has come to be known as 'the Facebook girl', aka the Egyptian Esraa Abdel Fatah (27 years old). Abdel Fatah who works in a private company as a Human Resources coordinator has suddenly become one of the most prominent detained figures arrested on charges of inciting a strike and causing disruption and rioting.
She was later released; however she was not the only one to be detained, several writers and bloggers have previously been arrested. The Egyptian journalist described Esraa as an ordinary Egyptian girl with no previous record of political activism or media or human rights activities.
In fact, he revealed that Esraa's colleagues in Al Ghad Party (The Tomorrow party), which she had joined less than a year ago, call her "Tomorrow's biscuit" in reference to her pleasant nature and sweet disposition.
Abdel Fatah was not on the government's list of known oppositional figures; she refused to join the "strike" group on Facebook, for example, which attacks various state symbols. To this day, the Egyptians still cannot fathom how this girl through a group invitation on Facebook managed to draw approximately 70,000 members who joined the group on the world's most famous interactive website.
Esraa's Facebook group succeeded in doing what Egyptian political groups failed to achieve, and it would be hard to believe that she could have been aware of the magnitude of the response she got for setting up the group. The fact remains that this huge response amongst Egyptian internet browsers indicates the extent of the need for platforms of expression other than what traditional media offers, which is also incapable of absorbing that need.
A broad segment of the public has resorted to this means of communication [internet] after the intensification of awareness in political issues and personal and public freedoms – all of which are subjected to varying degrees of limitations and opacity. There is no doubt that the future of the media is taking a historic turn towards the internet, based on the consideration that it is the means by which media outlets have the ability to become solid, ongoing and in a continuous state of progression.
It has become common knowledge that one year of internet [developments] is the equivalent of four years in other media mediums.This indicates that the internet is in a constant state of flux and continues to develop very quickly. No month passes without a qualitative development in the modus operanti of the World Wide Web – alongside with the tangential progression that happens as a result.
For example, the transition from blogs into Facebook was a smooth one, which also indicates a need for more liberated means of expression that are far removed from the institutionalized rules and regulations of traditional media.
This, however, is countered by the disruption and confusion that reigns over some Arab governments by virtue of the marginalization of the traditional means of surveillance that such states are witnessing, and which are incapable of keeping up with developments in communication.
-- Al Sharq al Awsat
He was particularly charged because he had images on his personal laptop that had been banned from publication in national Egyptian newspapers. The journalist's stories were incredibly interesting – especially since he had witnessed events that the media and the press did not relay to us.
However, the most compelling topic of conversation revolved around what has come to be known as 'the Facebook girl', aka the Egyptian Esraa Abdel Fatah (27 years old). Abdel Fatah who works in a private company as a Human Resources coordinator has suddenly become one of the most prominent detained figures arrested on charges of inciting a strike and causing disruption and rioting.
She was later released; however she was not the only one to be detained, several writers and bloggers have previously been arrested. The Egyptian journalist described Esraa as an ordinary Egyptian girl with no previous record of political activism or media or human rights activities.
In fact, he revealed that Esraa's colleagues in Al Ghad Party (The Tomorrow party), which she had joined less than a year ago, call her "Tomorrow's biscuit" in reference to her pleasant nature and sweet disposition.
Abdel Fatah was not on the government's list of known oppositional figures; she refused to join the "strike" group on Facebook, for example, which attacks various state symbols. To this day, the Egyptians still cannot fathom how this girl through a group invitation on Facebook managed to draw approximately 70,000 members who joined the group on the world's most famous interactive website.
Esraa's Facebook group succeeded in doing what Egyptian political groups failed to achieve, and it would be hard to believe that she could have been aware of the magnitude of the response she got for setting up the group. The fact remains that this huge response amongst Egyptian internet browsers indicates the extent of the need for platforms of expression other than what traditional media offers, which is also incapable of absorbing that need.
A broad segment of the public has resorted to this means of communication [internet] after the intensification of awareness in political issues and personal and public freedoms – all of which are subjected to varying degrees of limitations and opacity. There is no doubt that the future of the media is taking a historic turn towards the internet, based on the consideration that it is the means by which media outlets have the ability to become solid, ongoing and in a continuous state of progression.
It has become common knowledge that one year of internet [developments] is the equivalent of four years in other media mediums.This indicates that the internet is in a constant state of flux and continues to develop very quickly. No month passes without a qualitative development in the modus operanti of the World Wide Web – alongside with the tangential progression that happens as a result.
For example, the transition from blogs into Facebook was a smooth one, which also indicates a need for more liberated means of expression that are far removed from the institutionalized rules and regulations of traditional media.
This, however, is countered by the disruption and confusion that reigns over some Arab governments by virtue of the marginalization of the traditional means of surveillance that such states are witnessing, and which are incapable of keeping up with developments in communication.
-- Al Sharq al Awsat
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