Tweeting jan25
Dahan
May 2011
LEAD-IN:
During the jan25 uprising in Egypt, social media networks particularly Twitter played
a large role in facilitating communication between protesters. A-U-C’s Ahmed El
Dahan reports.
(Music Ben Walker – The Twitter Song – :20)
Twitter is a free online Social media utility that allows users to share short messages.
In March 2006, US entrepreneur Jack Dorsey came up with the concept for twitter
which was released in July of that year.
Users of Twitter are restricted to 140 characters in their messages called tweets. When
tweets are posted, they're displayed on a users profile page for other users to read.
On Jan 25th 2011, the Egyptian society staged a revolt against their government. This
was met without mercy from the Egyptian authorities. Thousands of protesters were
severely beaten, shot with rubber bullets and tear gassed by Egyptian forces.
(Music Emir Kutsturica – Foxtroxt – :10)
Amidst the clashes, many protesters were tweeting the events occurring around them
using their cell phones. This has to some people calling the Egyptian uprising a
Twitter Revolution.
(Music – YoYo Ma – Bach Cello Suite – 1min 30secs )
Whereas in the past Twitter was relatively unpopular in Egypt, during and ever since
the revolution its popularity has increased immensely! Journalist and Professor at
AUC, Firas Al Atraqchi gives his view on the effect of Twitter on jan 25:
ATRAQCHI: “I think that both the impact of twitter on the rev and the
impact of the rev on twitter can be seen in similar ways, particularly
when you say that countries like Egypt and Tunisia are extremely media
repressive.” (35)
He goes on to say that unlike blogs and Facebook, Twitters 140 characters makes user
get straight to the point. This makes it a very powerful means of communication.
(music Yanni Tiersen – L’Apres Midi - 1:34)
But when did Twitter actually come in handy? What can someone achieve with 140
characters? Noor Ayman, a young political activist and student was arrested during
the events of jan25.
He speaks about the uses he and his fellow activists have made out of twitter:
NOOR: “Twitter was extremely important for facilitating certain things
on the day of the 25th of January. Ok, Facebook was important for telling
people that there’s going to be an event at a certain place at a certain
time but Twitter’s good for giving people live updates on how that event’s
going and what’s happening next. Twitter was important for telling
people were the demonstrations were going where the demonstrations
were heading where danger was where it was safe etcetera etcetera.”
(:30)
There were times where Twitter saved people who were in dangerous situations.
Noor: “I’ll give you an example of a friend of mine Sarah Abdelrahman
who one time she went to the Amn El Dawla, to the State Security facility
at 6th of October and shots were fired at her but obviously from a
distance so as soon she felt danger she tweeted about it and within 15
minutes, you had several people coming or going there just to check up
on everything to make sure she’s alright.”
(music The Hang Playing Hedge Monkeys – North South East West – 1:28)
Sallie Pisch is a young American Journalist who participated in the jan25 march from
Gamet El Dewal to Tahrir square:
PISCH: “I will say that twitter is useful for the people who are already
watching. It is useful for people for example within a circle of activists.
So before jan25 at previous demonstration at the previous apr 6th or at
demonstrations I was at in the fall. Twitter is useful because it tells the
people who are already paying attention what’s going on. If all of a
sudden they don’t here from someone they can go back and say oh the
last I heard from them they were in Dokki or Tallat Harb or whatever.”
(:43)
Though she had an account, Pisch was not a regular Tweeter but on the 25th she says
she felt compelled to tweet what she was witnessing:
PISCH: “On jan25 like I said, I was expecting the usual, I was not really
worried about.. I didn’t have twitter on my phone at that point, I do now,
but I didn’t then, I don’t now how to work the internet on my phone. I
don’t have one of those fancy phones that does everything, BlackBerrys
or iPhones or whatever they are. But my roommates were at home so I
actually told them my twitter accounts up on my computer and I told them
if something happens I’ll text you and you can tweet from my account.
And my roommates actually did, the first couple of tweets I sent on
January 25th were via my roommates.” (:37)
(music The Hang Playing Hedge Monkeys – North East South West – 1:32)
Because it lacks any censorship, twitter does have a problem with credibility. With
the increase in Egyptian users, some less responsible than others, many rumours
surface on Twitter. Firas Al-Atraqchi argues that since there are many respectable
journalists on Twitter, their tweets clarify any false accusations made:
Atraqchi: “Of course because you’re dealing with 140 characters or less
there’s and there is room for misunderstanding you have to be very
careful how you phrase things, now having said that what I’ve notice is
that there’s a lot of people who are inexperienced in the media,
inexperienced in the ethics, inexperienced in the psychology of reporting
and they will often jump the gun. But because twitter is a global
phenomenon and because probably there are thousands of journalists
following thousands of other journalists there is a virtual system of
checks and balances. And, whereas one person might say I’ve heard this
and this happen this morning oh my God how could this be, somebody
else would be like I haven’t heard that please could you provide proof,
and then you’ll see a discussion going back and forth and within a few
minutes a verifiable solid piece of information would emerge. So its
people checking up on each other and sometimes people will apologise
and they’ll go back and fix that mistake. So in that regard, the danger will
get fixed and I think the more media organizations use twitter the more
checks and balances will be streamlined.” (1:30)
(music Yanne Tiersen - J’Y Suis Jamais Alle – 1:46)
As the popularity of twitter continues rising in Egypt, tweeters are increasing on a
daily basis. Some people are signing up to stay in touch with the political activity
going in the country while others are tweeting for other reasons:
Noor: “Twitter has definitely increased with Egyptian followers by I
think 400% or 500%, after the revolution many people suddenly went on
twitter. But more and more people are actually joining twitter for specific
causes. Like remember and I’m never going to forget this after the most
recent arrests of the Israeli embassy youths, the demonstrators, the
amount of families that joined twitter specially to contact certain
activities and tell them about their children or try to find out where their
kids and find out who else are missing. A large number of these families,
family members joined Twitter to try and find their children or someone
to help their children.” (:50)
This has been Ahmed El Dahan from A-U-C
Interviewees included in recording were:
Noor Ayman
Firas Al Atraqchi and
Sallie Pisch
Music used includes:
The twitter Song by Ben Walker
Foxtrot by Emile Kutsurica
L'Apres Midi and J’Y suis J’amais Alle By Yanni Tiersen and
North East South West by The Hang Playing Hedge Monkeys