My question would mainly be to clarify who was involved in chronicling political uprisings in Egypt online? Was it young people with educations, were there any voices of people experiencing deeper levels of poverty? And to follow up on this, did any of the observations and commentary differ based on the age/gender/social class/economic position/education level/etc. of the people expressing their views online?

In your experience in activism from an academic perspective, would you say that social media is threatening the value system in Egypt, especially since religion plays such a large role in all aspects of social life and is actually endorsed by law? Does the government ban or limit freedom of speech via ICT devices? And do you think the revolution in 2011 was aided by development in certain technology, such as encouraging user participation? And if so, to what degree? Thanks for the video, it was really interesting.

Thank you for sharing your research with us, Hani! The uprising in Egypt is not a topic I knew too much about before this week's lecture/discussion. From the readings that we've been assigned including your discussion about Egypt here, there are a lot of example of uprisings or protests that local citizens have participated in to have some sort of effect on the governments of their respective countries. However, my question for you is concerning the instances when resistance in virtual spaces did not translate into physical spaces. Why do some transfer into physical spaces and others do not?

Thank you for your videos they were extremely interesting and enlightening onto issues I do not know too much about! I liked your comment that it is really easy to get excited about the technologies themselves, but they do not come with the inherent quality for liberation. This basically sums a lot of our course up nicely.
I found it very interesting that you describe the activity of the Muslim Brotherhood/ruling elite similar to that of web 1.0 which we discussed in class and contrasted political online activism similar to that of web 2.0. The peer to peer ethos which you describe as central to political dissent and activism is alienated from centralized government activities. My question is how much of the peer to peer governance/democracy do you predict will transfer or change the structures of the government, or if this is even a desirable goal in practice?

Hi Hani! Thanks so much for your insight. This is a really interesting subject that I had very limited knowledge on other than little snipets I have heard/seen on mainstream media outlets that obviously don't disclose the full story. I guess after viewing your conversation with Professor Chan, my question would be: for the populations that may be somewhat more marginalized and may not have [as much] access to social media, how do they get their voices heard?

Thanks for the video, in the video you mention that government shut down of internet become a catalysis and fueled the truth engine. And my question is if the internet is being set up again in Egypt for the people, what should it be look like for the media and things to help the local people, for the rise of Egypt and how to protect the right of people to access to internet.

Hello Hani! Just like the others, I also was not fully aware of what really is/was going on in Egypt. I just heard that there was an uprising but the Western corporate media did not really pay that much attention to it (not that I know of).

Now to my question, you mentioned that observing things virtually will only give us a simplistic understanding of these dynamics. The only way is to be present in the physical space (Tahrir Square) or rely on distributed truth engines. It is apparent that not everyone who is interested in knowing the truth can go to Tahrir Square and observe/participate or, so what is to ensure us that the distributed truth engine is not subject to various and maybe contrasting interpretations of the "truth" and not cause further dispute, hence trigger a deeper divide among protesters themselves? I hope this question makes sense and not simply a mere misunderstanding on my part on what a distributive truth engine is. If that's the case then a clarification would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and good luck on your research.

Hello Hani! Thank you for your videos, your speech was very informative on what was actually going on in Egypt right now. Before watching these videos, I actually have heard of a bit news about the riot in Egypt awhile ago, but I never had a chance to research about it, so I'm glad that I could get the chance to know more of the detail of the event from you. I liked many things you have said, but I am very interested after listening to you about the good and bad side of internet and also how sometimes government uses the social medias "wisely" in turning them into their propaganda. This is a very interesting fact that I actually had never paid attention to before. And this topic brought my interest is because that Chinese government is doing a very similar thing with Egypt right now as you mentioned in the video, that they shut the internet down to avoid people accessing the social medias in terms of expressing their political views.

As you have mentioned that the "shut down" of the internet leads to a result of more people join in the uprising, which was not what the government wanted. So my question is, instead of shutting the internet, what do you think the government should have done in order to turn the situation around? Do you think the uprising is somewhat effected by the impact that western democratic social media has brought to Egypt?(understanding their rights and fight for the freedom of expressing their political views)

Hello Hani, Thank you for bringing such interesting subject to our class, you mentioned that the government was filtering the information on the internet so that it can control and hinder people to access the information of uprising. Do you think people can find other way or tools to avoid the filtering from government and support the uprising by more people than before? The limitation of accessing the information in the internet is the main user of internet is educated people, do you think it is the chance for people to consider to change the way that people spreading information and even the uneducated people can access the information and truth of uprising in Egypt?

Hey Hani, my question is regarding social media as a truth engine and the notion that Egypt activists are now in the midst of a "marathon". I think it is a standard experinece that people globally experience moments that propel sprints, events that instagate change or at least moments of unrest. Activity on social media can become very active to reflect these periods, protests can trend on twitter. However, during the marathons, how do you think people can remian engaged in drawn out struggles in the digital age where there will always be another story or event that can distract people's attention?

Hello, thank you for sharing your insights on Egyptian situation. You mentioned that deep structures of oppression had been existed in Egypt, and there has been some attempts to resist that. What do young activists think about the democratic system? Do they believe that election process will truly make a democratic government and that their voices are heard? Are they manipulated by the social media, or messages from friends, and are just full of passion but not truly understanding that rebels or supporting regimes could possibly be corrupted too? How could the public sphere of social media help in addressing the marrshall law? If the Mubarak regime manipulated the interplay of virtual and physical space to their own political interest and gains, will Egyptians have changed their viewpoints or their patriotism in Mubarak? You mentioned that social media is a distributed truth engine, can you please tell me if the political campaigns and spark of revolution came from the role (distributed truth engine) of social media? For example, the video called Muslims was displayed in Hollywood, and also in Youtube, but it never attracted much views, until Egyptian American politician caught it and shared in the arab-spring blog. It somewhat contributed to the intensity of the revolution, and I was wondering if this is an example.

Hello, I was wondering what role you felt social media had in the democratization of Egypt. Is it truly revolutionary or just a way for citizens to organize? Or does social media create a new public sphere that is much harder for the government to control thus allowing people to more effectively make claims to their rights. Finally, does social media allow people who would have previously done nothing to contribute a little in the form of clicktivism/slacktivism or does it make potential revolutionaries lazier? Does the instant gratification and entertainment aspect of social media(twitters 140 characters) have a negative impact on translating social media action into real life change?

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Hi Hana, thank you for taking the time to share with our class. It is an honour. Do you think Egyptians who reside in other parts of the world that have been active online or came back to support during the uprise help propel the movement? Also, you mentioned the uprise was lead mostly by educated youth; did lack of employment for recent grads play a part? Lastly, in the media there seems to be friction between the Muslim and Christian communities; is that propaganda or is there some reality to that?

Hello Hani! Thank you very much for taking the time to discuss the various Egyptian uprisings with our class. It is an extremely pertinent case for our class to study, as it touches on many of the concepts and terms that we have analyzed thus far. My question is in reference ‘Part 1’ of your conversation with Professor Chan. Here, around the 20:00 minute mark you discuss how Egypt is home to a population which is ideologically diverse. Following this however, you mention how following the uprising, the rifts along ideological and sectarian lines have become clear. You mention how individuals have organized themselves into political binaries, something which is not productive in a functioning democracy. Do you believe that ‘Web 2.0’ and the various forms of social activism that we have seen is partly responsible for this development? If so, why do you believe this is occurring? Thank you again!

Hello Hani! Thank you for sharing all this knowledge with us! Thank you as well to all my classmates for the really interesting questions that have been asking. I would like to draw from Jennifer and Stephen question in relation to the question that Professor Chan asked you in the second part of the video. I find it really interesting to understand the dichotomy between the fast paced aspects of a peer to peer system and the realization of a more conservative long term outcome as describes by the "marathon" analogy. In your answer to the question you speak about the ways in which these new tools can be used to promote ideas that maintain the status quo or to promote ideas that challenge the status quo. And in my understanding it is in fact they way that these tools are used that ends up affecting the type of outcome that comes from them. I am interested in further understating how this fast paced peer to peer system can work together and contribute to a longer term and more holistic result and understanding of the processes happening?

Hello everyone, thanks for your interest in knowing more about the topics I discussed in the videos. I will try to respond to your questions and elaborate on some of those themes.

Daniela: Who chronicles the uprising online?

While it is natural that there are competing narratives, you can get a sense of the general profile of those who have most visibly used social media as platforms to organize and mobilize for the revolution, the events that led up to it as well as subsequent protests and other acts of resistance to the reproduction authoritarianism. These are young, technologically-savvy, well educated Egyptians who mostly live in urban areas in Egypt. There are now groups that are using social media to document and keep a sort of collective memory of resistance of the citizen uprising of January 2011. For a great example of these groups, you can have a look at Mosireen, an activist group that calls itself a 'revolutionary media collective' http://mosireen.org

Meara:
- "would you say that social media is threatening the value system in Egypt, especially since religion plays such a large role in all aspects of social life and is actually endorsed by law?"

It is safe to say that people find it much easier to discuss taboo subjects online, given the safety found in anonymity. The extent to which this results in more acceptance/willingness to discuss these topics offline in a conservative society can vary, but one interesting example is a recent public debate between atheists and believers inside a mosque in Cairo (an event that is a first in Egypt) http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/kristin-deasy/debating-atheism-heart-cairo

- "Does the government ban or limit freedom of speech via ICT devices?"

Not in any way that has currently major implications on freedom of speech online. There has been many discussions in the Egyptian parliament about censoring Internet access, but non was actually passed into law.

- "And do you think the revolution in 2011 was aided by development in certain technology, such as encouraging user participation?"

As I have mentioned in a few of my blog posts and maybe in the videos, revolutions and other acts of resisting injustice are historical inevitabilities. Comparative historical timeframes notwithstanding, it is a question of 'when' not 'if' (..a revolt happens against authoritarianism). Social media technologies have played - and are playing - a catalytic role in the Egyptian revolution, but it has not been the cause or the prime enabler of why people revolted.

Charmaine:

The relationship between what happens on virtual and physical spaces, while often iterative when being used as organizing tools, is not very uniform and straightforward. There are various and often complex reasons behind this, and we can discuss issues of 'slacktivism', among others, but in the case of Egypt, you can get some insights be looking at virtual political discourses pre and post revolution. To explain further, I'll quote a paragraph from another blog post I have written on this:

"It could be argued that the ideological homogeneity that characterizes a collective resistance during a popular uprising has distinct temporal and physical boundaries. Beyond milestones that define the relative success of confrontational mass dissent (e.g. a dictator being ousted), many divisive factors will naturally force their way to the forefront of the sociopolitical arena. Faced with a common, much more able foe as the strongly entrenched regime, social identities coalesce and ideological divides are diminished temporarily during an act of popular uprising. Following a short-lived revolutionary euphoria, a society in which open political participation and self-expression was heavily stifled for several decades suddenly gains a level of freedom that in turn invokes a sort of collective hyper-awareness of perceived self-identities. Consequently, ideological affiliations became much more pronounced, and binary identification with certain political ideologies or factions became a way for most people to find and assert these identities."

Naturally, these social and political binaries are starkly reflected in virtual discourses, which changes the nature of 'resistance' and 'activism' because the goals are not as common as they have previously been.

Jennifer: "My question is how much of the peer to peer governance/democracy do you predict will transfer or change the structures of the government, or if this is even a desirable goal in practice?"

I think we need to have a sense of critical futurism about that, as the scene of political contestation in places like Egypt right now is too complex to make any reasonable predictions. That said, from a very broad perspective and as a very generalized trend, structures of authority, decision making and governance are becoming increasingly decentralized worldwide (with varying degrees, of course, depending on where you look). I don't think this trend will be slowing down soon, but the opposite will be happening.

Is it a desirable goal? In my view, yes. Building mechanisms for effective participation that address the increasingly complex political environments globally favors the distributed and decentralized, not the hierarchical and consolidated.

Chantel: for the populations that may be somewhat more marginalized and may not have [as much] access to social media, how do they get their voices heard?

That is one of the main questions with respect to the extent ICT's can really play an effective role in the 'long game' against authoritarianism when things like network penetration rates and technological literacies are very low outside larger cities. There has been some really great examples of how some activist groups (I mentioned Mosireen in one of the answers above) find innovative ways to try to make some of those marginalised voices heard, like recording interviews with police/army abuse victims and making street-screenings of those interviews in many locations in Egypt. Have a look at some of the videos here http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mosireen&sm=3

hosang.ching:

This is how I understand your question (please let me know if I am off): With the threat of Internet censorship or even shutdown potentially there, how are Egyptian activists responding?

There has been a strong public backlash against the telecom companies that complied with the Egyptian government's order to shutdown network communications in late January 2011. Awareness of concepts such as 'net neutrality' still need to be promoted further, but the public are generally now rather aware of the threat and extent of leverage the government has over private telecom companies.

Last year, there was a big controversy in Egypt around a proposed 'ban' on online pornography. The ban was backed by the Islamists but there was a public outcry against it due to wider implications of such a ban, if it was indeed enforced (potential censorship of political content of dissenting nature, etc). The ban never came into force, but, being still under authoritarian rule, the threat of internet censorship in Egypt is still there.

Sydney:

The notion of 'truth' is indeed extremely subjective. I used the term 'distributed truth engine' to illustrate the accelerated process of fact-finding and increased potential verifiability made possible by social media technologies, but not to claim what constitutes truth and what doesn't. Additionally, 'truth' has very different nature in a context of a mass uprising against a dictator (as what happened against Mubarak in 2011) versus competing narratives of authenticity in a post-revolution context (see my reply to Charmaine above).

Stephanie:

"Instead of shutting the internet, what do you think the government should have done in order to turn the situation around?"

Difficult to tell what an alternative scenario would have been, considering that in many ways the protests have reached a critical mass even before the Internet was shut down. What the Egyptian government could have done much earlier is make heavy use of surveillance and network intrusion technologies (which they have done to some degree). Morozov's "The Net Delusion" has some good examples of that.

"Do you think the uprising is somewhat effected by the impact that western democratic social media has brought to Egypt?(understanding their rights and fight for the freedom of expressing their political views)"

I don't think so. Egyptians didn't suddenly 'discover' that they have been robbed of rights and freedoms because they saw other countries have that online. People who grew up in East Germany didn't have social media (or access to any alternative media, for that matter), but the Berlin Wall came down eventually and authoritarian rule collapsed. Would the wall have come down earlier if they had social media? It's anybody's guess, but - again - I think of social media as an accelerant of processes of change, not as a trigger of these processes.

Peihua:

- "Do you think people can find other way or tools to avoid the filtering from government and support the uprising by more people than before?"

Yes, but this take a particular skill set limited to very tech-savvy citizens, who - in any country - are a minority.

- "The limitation of accessing the information in the internet is the main user of internet is educated people, do you think it is the chance for people to consider to change the way that people spreading information and even the uneducated people can access the information and truth of uprising in Egypt?"

The ways people are accessing the internet are changing. For example, more and more people are accessing the networks from mobile devices compared to other computing platforms. Mobile technologies are generally more accessible, with respect to both cost and the required knowledge to use. Internet penetration in Egypt is a little over 30%, while mobile penetration will be going over 115% soon. This, as a trend, says a lot about the future of connectivity and, by consequence, how more people will be able to participate in the political use of networks.

I hope the responses I have provided so far offer further clarification on some of the topics discussed. Please forgive me if I have not replied to your question yet, I'll post some more replies tomorrow.

Stephen:

"How do you think people can remain engaged in drawn out struggles in the digital age where there will always be another story or event that can distract people's attention?"

This is one of the central topics of my research, which I have referred to in one of my blog posts linked on this page. How well can activists play the 'long game' against the state or reactionary/authoritarian structures in general. In the past two years, counterrevolutionary forces have used several divide-and-conquer tactics to do just what you referred to: "...there will always be another story that can distract people's attention". Broadly speaking, I think revolutionary activists in Egypt now have realized that they really need to keep drawing the public's attention to the core issues behind why people revolted in Tahrir Square almost three years ago. One of the initiatives that aim to do this is what is now known as the Revolutionary Path Front, which you can get some background on here http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/82400/Egypt/0/New-antiBrotherhood,-antimilitary-front-launched-t.aspx

Diana: (plenty of questions!)

- "What do young activists think about the democratic system? Do they believe that election process will truly make a democratic government and that their voices are heard?"

They have a severe mistrust of a farcical quasi-democratic process that they have not been part of setting the rules which govern it. After Mubarak';s ousting, elections have been used by the Muslim Brotherhood to achieve majoritarian ends, not to contribute to building an inclusive political arena in a what could have been a post-authouritarian context. Egyptian revolutionary activists are purposefully choosing to detach from formal political participation, because the rules of the political system still exclusively serve the authoritarian structures.

- "Are they manipulated by the social media, or messages from friends, and are just full of passion but not truly understanding that rebels or supporting regimes could possibly be corrupted too?"

In a political environment as chaotic as post-Mubarak Egypt, all of that happens to some degree or another, but it is a learning experience for both activists and the state or counter-revolutionary forces. The repertoires of engagement are ever changing.

- "How could the public sphere of social media help in addressing the marrshall law?"

I think you're referring to the Emergency Law, which has been (partially) lifted in May 2012. In general, social media can act as an "incubator of dissent" and freedom of expression in restrictive environments.

- "If the Mubarak regime manipulated the interplay of virtual and physical space to their own political interest and gains, will Egyptians have changed their viewpoints or their patriotism in Mubarak?"

I don't really understand this question. Could I ask you to perhaps rephrase it?

Diana (cont'd)

- "You mentioned that social media is a distributed truth engine, can you please tell me if the political campaigns and spark of revolution came from the role (distributed truth engine) of social media?"

I don't believe social media 'sparked' the citizen uprising of January 2011, but I do believe it 'catalysed' it and provided invaluable organizing platforms for it. You can read my response to Stephanie above for more on this.

- "For example, the video called Muslims was displayed in Hollywood, and also in Youtube, but it never attracted much views, until Egyptian American politician caught it and shared in the arab-spring blog. It somewhat contributed to the intensity of the revolution, and I was wondering if this is an example."

I think you might be referring to the "Innocence of Muslims" video. Some riots happened in Cairo as a response to this film, but they were not related to revolutionary demands or protests. These were mainly a result of incitement by hardline religious leaders in Egypt.

Jeff:

- "I was wondering what role you felt social media had in the democratization of Egypt. Is it truly revolutionary or just a way for citizens to organize?"

I think there are two ways to think about social media: 1) As tools and platforms to organize and 2) as alternative public spheres or incubators of political dissent. However revolutionary the technologies are, they do not lead to democratization by default. Several other variables come into play and they're highly contextual. Is it truly revolutionary? Simply speaking, we can take social media out of the equation and think of alternative scenarios of events that happened in the past two years in Egypt. Yes, it is 'just a way for citizens to organize', but it is a fundamentally different way from how citizens used to organize in the past.

- "Or does social media create a new public sphere that is much harder for the government to control thus allowing people to more effectively make claims to their rights."

In many ways it does. But governments are now much more aware of this, and as Morozov cautions in 'The Net Delusion', this alternative public sphere can also be abused by surveillance.


- "Finally, does social media allow people who would have previously done nothing to contribute a little in the form of clicktivism/slacktivism or does it make potential revolutionaries lazier? Does the instant gratification and entertainment aspect of social media(twitters 140 characters) have a negative impact on translating social media action into real life change?"

I believe all of that happens, to varying degrees. A lot of what happens on social media in Egypt right now can be extremely divisive. That said, what we're really interested in is the *net effect* of social media and emerging ICT's on how people organize and mobilize. That's why there are strong binaries in literature on ICTs and activism that range from enthusiastic cyber-optimsim to gloomy cyber-pessemism.

Farhia:

- "Do you think Egyptians who reside in other parts of the world that have been active online or came back to support during the uprise help propel the movement?"

Some did, like Wael Ghoneim, the Egyptian Google executive who was based in Dubai and was behind one of the Facebook pages that helped organize the January 2011 protests. He later published a book called Revolution 2.0

- "Also, you mentioned the uprising was lead mostly by educated youth; did lack of employment for recent grads play a part?"

Certainly, this fueled frustration with the Mubarak system.

- "Lastly, in the media there seems to be friction between the Muslim and Christian communities; is that propaganda or is there some reality to that?"

Sectarian tension is largely used as a divisive, counter-revolutionary tactic by the state and groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ethan:

Yes, that's one of the dark sides of social media in play. It is very easy for people to build their own political 'filter bubbles' online (you 'like' pages that promote ideology you subscribe to, and 'unfollow' those with whom you disagree), and this exacerbates identification with political extremes in physical space.

Alejandro:

I think the big picture perspective is that which looks at two main opposing modes of political contestation: the decentralized, distributed, 'peer-to-peer' mode of organizing and mobilizing for political dissent, versus the highly rigid and centralized system of authoritarian rule. If we think of technology as a constant (since it can be used by both, and oftentimes more effectively by governments), I believe - in the long run - the innovative, responsive and leaderless nature of the technologically empowered grassroots movements will be more influential in shaping sociopolitical change.