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Zeid Abdul-Hadi

Vice Chairman, HarCapital

TEDCRED 500+
TED AttendeeAssociateTEDx Organizer

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To what extent has social media contributed to the spreading of the People's revolutions and call for Freedom in Tunisia & Egypt?

The past month has seen unprecedented events in history in the Middle East that hasn't been possible to achieve in 30 years, and this is partly due to the rise of the internet and the new means of communication at the disposal of people, and in particular social media, such as Twitter & Facebook, which has allowed people to rally for a common cause in large numbers in a way that would've been impossible before. In addition, the rise of the use of the internet and social media has enabled people to see everything clearly and to know about everything from different media sources, so no government can fool its people anymore.

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    Saeed Taji Farouky 200+

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    TED FellowAssociate
    Feb 14 2011: Online social media is simply a tool that can be used and abused in ways as creative as the people exploiting it. It can help to organise revolutionaries, or to help crush them. Let's not forget that dissent and revolutions existed in equally powerful forms before digital social media, so while these tools helped, say, the people of Tunisia and Egypt, these were not "twitter revolutions" "facebook revolutions" etc. I find that name itself very patronising: news channels and corporations desperately branding the bravery and sacrifice of the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and so on...

    I think once the revolutionary passion has momentum, it can succeed. Online social media helps it to succeed faster.

    • Mark Meijer 100+

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      HostAssociate
      Feb 16 2011: Well said, I agree. However, revolutionary passion does not easily gain momentum if people don't think there are enough like-minded people out there, and/or if people can't assemble freely (a time-tested way of stifling dissent). And I think the internet has been a vital tool for overcoming some of those barriers, and probably in some cases for enabling momentum to actually build at all.

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