In 2007, when Facebook got introduced– or 2000– and 2006, 2007, once Facebook started being open for everybody, you know, that´s when we started realizing that Facebook is much better at, you know, coordinating events and organizing stuff. So the blogs lost that function. And then, once Twitter showed up, you know it became– we first started to find out who out of our friends was getting arrested. Because, at that time, Twitter was– we didn´t have smart phones, the Wi-Fi was not really that rampant. So you had to use Instant Message to Tweet. And yeah, the good old days. And now you know, we realized that this is a fantastic way to let people know what´s happening and when it happens.
And it´s a good way to let people know if you´re getting arrested. And that´s when kind of the blogs lost their lackluster for like, you know went lackluster for a few years. But now, they are very useful again. Because, as much as you can use Facebook to organize things, and as much as you can use Twitter to let people know what´s happening instantly or provide them, you know, with your latest brain fart or whatever and even– even express your opinion– people need analysis; people need content.
That´s why blogs are necessary again. Because where else are you going to get analysis? So it´s interesting, because being in the game for six years, a lot of people consider you like a veteran activist. Which is impossible for me to comprehend. I meet lots of activists who are like 20 and 22 and whatever, and they are like new, and, you know, and they look at you as the experienced veteran. It´s very strange to think that I have spent, what, six years of my life now, seven years almost, you know, being an activist. Blogs are basically a place to go and find new content and new information, new fun things and answers. It was a fantastic way to also meet people. Because you didn´t have social networks, and, you know, everybody thought they were like screaming in the wilderness, you know, on their website. And, you know, more and more people started coming out.
They´re like, “Hey, you know, someone thinks like me. We should be friends.” And stuff like that. So it was a good, you know, thing, socially, I guess. It made people find each other. But 2007, that was the end of it. That was– that´s when we moved towards the 200,000 blogs in Egypt category. And that´s when you just could not– not know who was where doing what. But that´s mainly like how our Egyptian blogosphere started. After that, there were people who were mainly the Facebook people, who´d just write notes on Facebook. And Facebook made it a lot easier for people to get audiences. Because you know, let´s say, you start a blog and you want to get some traffic for it.
So you start sending out the links to your friends and harassing them in emails, and being like, “Read this. Read this. Read this.” And then, your friends have to open the email and not ignore you and then press on the link. And it opens another link. And then, they have to read. Facebook, on the other hand, just took that link and just put it up there and like you could read it on your wall. So you didn´t have to go anywhere; it´s all here, happy and safe, sound. So it made it a lot easier for people to actually get lots of exposure on others.
Mahmoud Salem is a blogger, activist, writer and a business development consultant. His blog is the most prominent English-language Egyptian blog, entitled: “Rantings of a Sandmonkey” it won the best Middle East and Africa blog awards in 2006 and 2007, and Best English Blog in the Deutsche Welle Best of Blogs award in 2011 and has over 6 million unique views and his Twitter account has over 87,000 followers. His human rights activism areas have been in freedom of speech, human rights, religious rights, and women’s’ rights.
In 2005, he started the first anti-terrorism demonstration in Cairo, and participated in monitoring the Egyptian parliamentary and presidential elections.
In 2006, he was the principal organizer of the first Egyptian anti-sexual harassment demonstration and marsh after the Eid sexual harassment incidents. Incensed by Police torturing Egyptian people on videos and sparing them, he and friends collected the videos, posted them online and pushed for a public persecution of the police officers who committed those acts, leading to the unprecedented convictions of two police officers.
In 2007, he was a stage speaker at the Atlas Foundation’s 25th anniversary conference, head of the new media panel in the Qatar Foundation democracy conference and started the Tafkir project, an Arabic language blogging website to facilitate and promote ideas and online dialogue.
In 2008, he was an organizer and a team leader of 8 Egyptian bloggers for the “Egypt blogs America” project, which monitored the US elections and created a documentary film about it.
In 2009, he was picked for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference and the US Islamic Forum conference, and started the IRIS social campaign company.
In 2011, he was one of the leading voices of the January 25 revolution that brought down Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, ran for Egyptian Parliament, started the Tweetback initiative which developed two impoverished communities in Egypt with a population over 700,000 and raised millions of pounds for social entrepreneurship projects. He also initiated the “Egyptian Bill of Rights Project,” which was later on sponsored by Mohamed El Baradei.
He co-authored two books – “Tweets from Tahrir” and “18 Days” and founded “7etan,” the first Graffiti School in Egypt. His writings have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Guardian and various online websites.
With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.
The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.
From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.
For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.
Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.
In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.
In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.
See all Egypt videos