A large power that was once held by big corporations and government is now held by the people. This power is commonly known as social media. The protests in Egypt have been a popular item in the news lately and Facebook has been largely involved. Facebook has been fairly actively involved in Egypt through supporting democracy and civic engagement. According to The Daily Beast, Facebook has guarded the identity of many Egyptian activists. This shielding has aided in the secrecy needed to organize and form anti-government protests. Facebook has been the central communication outlet to make the Egyptian revolution possible.
The page that was developed was We Are All Khaled, which was created in memory of an Egyptian man murdered by police. Unfortunately, the page was taken down because apparently Facebook had been alerted that the page administrator was using a pseudonym which is prohibited by the social media giant.
Coincidently, Facebook’s director of policy for Europe offered a loophole saying, “There is no discretion here as the creation of fake accounts threatens the integrity of our whole system,” he wrote. “People must use the profile of a real person to admin the page or risk it being taken down at any time. It is not important to us who that real person is as long as their account appears genuine. So if they can offer a real person as admin then the page can be restored.”
This allowed for Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian immigrant and activist in Washington D.C., to lend her account and password so that the page could be restored. Social media is no longer just a tool to communicate with friends but a vital instrument in providing the people with the power. Facebook expanded on its role and an even greater role of social media to promote democracy and civic engagement.
Twitter has also played a large role in the Egyptian protests. When its site was blocked by the Egyptian government, its creators demanded that the government must allow the tweets to continue.
Although Facebook has not directly commented on its role, we can now have a slightly deeper understanding of the role of social media around the world.
By Jason Coon
By Jason Coon