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Lawrence Wang

Executive Director, TEDtoChina

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Social media revolution changed Egypt , then which country will be next one?

From the beginning, the revolution in Egypt was propelled by the use of social media, and then the government blocked Facebook and Twitter and eventually shut down Internet access completely.Twitter and Facebook users found ways to work around the blackout.Without a doubt, social media, mobile devices and the web have brought the stories from Egypt closer to home. And conversely, the events in Egypt have shown the strength of these tools for both organizing and informing people. we can say social media revolution can make history.
Which country will be next one?

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Topics: social media
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  • MAHMIOUD HASSAN

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    Jul 6 2011: There are a lot of reasons we started our revolution from social media.
    Mubarak and his son and their men looked to social media and people interacting their with less importance :they give great effort to the people making groups in the real world and give no importance to people making groups in the internet world .This gives us more freedom to us to post our opinions in social media either with our real IP or with masking programs .i remembered in a conference a journalist asking Jamal Mubarak about facebook's youth pinions and jamal mubrak replayed with laugh and joking on us
    After jan25 the day after that 26,27.... they started to hack accounts for people have high political activities in social media and started to arrest them then they cut internet which is now a HUMAN RIGHT LIKE AIR AND WATER at least for us

    by the way there is a published book that documented the revolution from our tweets in twitter ..

    i think other dectatories will learn from that lesson and give more importance to social media not like Mubarak
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    Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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    Apr 23 2011: No question the power of the internet beyond social chatter is being demonstrated evry day... In Egypt it helped young people all over who were working 2 or three menial jobs with college and advanced degrees..paying 80% of of theiir income for food come together outside of normal grass roots politics to stand together in that square. But it has not brought them the changes or the peoples democracy they sought..they are being oppressed by a military regime that includes many of the same folk as were there under Mubarak..so in the case of Egypt..it only got them to the square to the eyes of the world. Have we let the internet become like media news..all the buzz one day..out of sight and mind the next? Can we use it more productively to keep the truth of the plight of the young revolutionaries before the world? Are we doing all we can with the internet to help them have what they stood in the square demanding?
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    S.R. Ahmadi 20+

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    Apr 22 2011: social media is a tool, not a cause.
    first people change themselves, then they use all tools including social media to change their country.
    people of all countries are changing one by one. specially young people.
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    S.R. Ahmadi 20+

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    Apr 22 2011: all countries
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    ahmed terboub

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    Mar 19 2011: it has nothing to do with social media ...arabic states are revoluting because revolution is the unique way that lead to changes and not the social media even social media help egyptians and others arbic and non arabic countries

    • Lawrence Wang 500+

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      TED TranslatorTEDx Organizer
      Apr 22 2011: I do not think so. This kind of revolution would not happen if it were not for the social media in these countries. Social media based on web2.0 make it possible that people can connect with each other,and then exchange information, even share their sadness, happiness...
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        Lindsay Newland Bowker 50+

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        Apr 24 2011: Lawrence, Ahmed's point, and mine I think are the same.all that social media accomplsihed in Egypt was a way for people to gather and act collectively and that's all it allowed. It's a myth thatthe revolutionaries were sucessful in bringing a new democracy to Egyot or any change. The eyes of the world abandoned those young revolutionaries..the social media abandoned them..for the real political power of social media to be realized it has to have the focus, the commirment the good hard work and diligence that old fashioned grass roots politics had. All the social media accomplished in Egypt was allowing them to set a time and place to gather in the square..that's all.
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      Sky F

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      Apr 22 2011: I read I think... Time Magazine? I don't remember the numbers exactly but they showed demographic data of the countries undergoing these revolutions. The majority of the population of these places was under 30 years old. The majority of the people under 30 years old use the internet. Their leaders are a lot older than them and have held office the majority of their lives. Through internet, they learn that many parts of the rest of the world have democracy. Hell, you see America get excited over getting rid of Bush and voting in Obama through the internet, people may wonder "Why don't we get that right?"

      Mix all that into a pot and you have young people starting revolutions against their old dictators.

      The revolution won't be televised... it will be downloaded.

  • Robin Carey

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    Feb 24 2011: The thing is, for a social media revolution to take place there must be sufficient computer access, at least to a critical mass of people. So that nixes North Korea, for example. I would say Saudi Arabia will be next.
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      Pasquale Borriello

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      Mar 8 2011: good point. But what if Social Media is used by a small number of people in the country itself just to deliver info to foreigner users? I guess that is is what happened in Iran.
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    Chandra Chauhan 20+

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    Feb 16 2011: Social media is accessible worldwide, especially to the younger generation that make up the masses of current day populations. ..they are vigilantly watching! All it takes is the COURAGE to organize & act as Egypt did. Courage is the key word!
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