Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the new tools of protest in the Arab world

[Ijaz]

In The Washington Post Mona Eltahawy writes:

'.....thanks to social media's increasing popularity and ability to connect activists with ordinary people, Egyptians are protesting police brutality in unprecedented numbers.

'While social media didn't invent courage -- activists have long protested the tactics of President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally who has maintained a state of emergency in Egypt since assuming office in 1981 -- the Internet has in recent months connected Egyptians and amplified their voices as never before. There's an anti-torture Web site with a hotline to report incidents. The independent advocacy group El Nadim Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence publishes an online diary that has documented 200 allegations of abuse since February. On another site Egyptians post pictures of abusive police officers.

This week, a woman in a full-length veil went on television to accuse two police officers of raping and robbing her. Her tearful segment has gone viral on YouTube.

Detractors say that social media sites are just the latest platforms from which "apathetic" Arabs now tilt at windmills. Facebook has not overthrown a single Arab dictator, and Twitter has yet to topple any regimes, the thinking goes.

But the better points to assess about social media have to do with their effect on young people in the Arab world -- the bulk of the population -- and the loosening of long-established controls.

An estimated 3.4 million Egyptians are on Facebook, according to Spot-On, a public relations firm, making Egypt the No. 1 user in the Arab world and 23rd globally. Nearly 2 million Egyptian Facebook users are younger than 25. As with Facebook users everywhere, Egyptians post embarrassing pictures, flirt with strangers and reunite with school friends.'

Full article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...d=opinionsbox1

Hopefully the social media sites will spur larger numbers of people to protest against tyrannical regimes and help to uphold human rights throughout the Arab world and beyond.

[dark_knight]

This modern day firaun is supported by the Americans/israeli. i dont think he'll be going any where soon.

at least when are able to see what is really going on in egypt and how the people are standing up to it.

If we want the abuses to end, we'll need to pressurise our governments first