Overview It never occurred to the Arab regimes , being as repressive as could be, that their ambitious plans to modernize the communications infrastructure to attract and increase investments in information technology and increase the number of internet users, will back fire. Those plans have resulted in a generation of bloggers and internet activists that bitterly criticize those regimes and stand against various violations and corruption and push forward for change. Blogging started in 1999, it began to spread and have impact since spring 2003 with the American invasion of Iraq. Arabic blogs emerged in 2004. Starting in 2005, they were widely spread with the start of a political movement in the region and calls for change and reform, in which bloggers have played a prominent role and took part in advocating for change and raising political awareness, especially in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. Egyptian bloggers took the initiative, and were able to stretch the margin of freedom of expression in defiance to the Egyptian regime, by discussing political and social issues were considered previously as taboos. They managed to break the fear among a large segment of internet users, mostly young people and encourage them to positive political participation. Blogging in the Arab world The number of Arabic blogs, according to the report of the Information Decision Support Center of the Egyptian cabinet, is about 490,000 until mid-2008 Arabic blogs are hosted on different websites most important of which is
www.blogger.com, which is owned by Google. In addition, to websites like
www.wordpress.com, the website
www.maktoobblog.com, an Arabic website that hosted in mid-2009 more than 91,000 blog from all Arab countries . As well as, some other websites that provide blogging service, such as Elaph, Jeeran , Katib, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the blogs of the famous couple, Manal and Alaa. According to estimates of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, which specializes in freedom of expression in the media and the internet, there are about 600,000 Arabic blogs. However, the active blogs are actually no more than 25%. Arabic blogs can be classified quantitatively and per country. Egypt has the largest number of blogs that make up one third of the Arabic blogs, followed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Morocco. The blogging space is divided between the community of Egyptian secular bloggers and reformists and another that represents a gathering of writers supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is defined as « illegal » and banned by the Egyptian regime. Yet, it can be found repeatedly on the internet through young bloggers who declare their membership of the group and express their ideas spread through blogs and launch campaigns to defend Muslim Brotherhood detainees. In addition to other blogs that belongs to the Brotherhood that varies between literary and social blogs. The Egyptian bloggers aim to break the political constraints through their blogs, which are renowned for its bitter criticism of the government in spite of the government’s repression on them. In Saudi Arabia, blogging is focusing on personal rather than political matters. In Kuwait, the majority of blogs are in English. The Syrian blogs are quite similar to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the topic. The Moroccan blogs use a mix of the Arabic and French language. However, some bloggers who discussed political issues and revealed corruption cases served prison terms in Syria, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. Arab bloggers use Web 2.0 and they link their blogs in various websites such as YouTube , Wikipedia and news websites such as Aljazeera.net and the BBC, followed by Al-Arabiya, and most recently the social networking website Facebook. The age group that most widely uses blogs is between 25 -35 years amounting 45% of the Arab population. The Arab bloggers over 35 years are 9%, while females represent 34% of Arab bloggers.The highest ratio for female bloggers compared to male bloggers is in Egypt in the age group from 18 to 24 years, amounting 47% and the proportion of female bloggers in Saudi Arabia is 46% of Saudi bloggers . 83% of the Arab bloggers live in their homeland and often use aliases, especially among female bloggers. In general, Arab bloggers write about local political issues and criticize the ruling regimes. They also discuss personal and religious issues which are among the main issues discussed and debated on Arab blogs. Human rights issues are also one of the most common issues discussed on blogs. An issue that all Arabic blogs and all Arab bloggers are all against is siege of Gaza, and the Israeli attack on Gaza, in December 2008 -January 2009. Arabic Blogs: Voice Of The Voiceless Blogging helped the various religious groups to emerge and represent their case to the Arab public opinion. For example, the Baha’is have used blogging to display their case and the defend their religious freedoms. The most famous Baha’i blog is An Egyptian Baha’i,
http://egyptianbahai.wordpress.com, owned by an Egyptian young man in his thirties born in a Baha’i family. In his blog he discussed the problems facing him particularly obtaining official papers as well as lack of tolerance and resentment he feels when he declares that he is Baha’i. The blogger, Randa El Hoassani, her blog:
http://rands1957.spaces.live.com/blog, is an Egyptian Baha’i activist. She was born in Port Said in a Baha’i family of the fourth-generation. In 1972, She was imprisoned when she was 14 years, for a month, with other Baha’is for contempt of religions Blogging has also helped the emergence of a number of codes for homosexuals since 2006, which allowed gays to express themselves and their point of view and confirm their presence in the Arab and Muslim communities in a realistic way rather than the stereotypical image that novels and films have been feeding the public over the years, prior to internet.The most famous of such blogs are: •
http://gayweekly.blogspot.com/ : a Kuwaiti blog •
http://saudigayboy.blogspot.com/ : a Saudi blog • The blog Kareem Diary
http://kareemazmy.blogspot.com • Diaries of a lesbian woman. Cases disclosed by bloggers Arab bloggers managed to play a key role in the political field pressuring the authority to act on several issues, such as torture in Egypt which became an attitude during the reign of Hosni Mubarak. It is practiced by police officers against citizens as punishment or to extract confessions or just as a show of power. Bloggers revealed incidents of torture and posted videos that show police officers torturing people in police stations. The most famous scene is the torturing of Emad AlKabir, a driver, who was tortured and raped with a stick by the police officer, Islam Nabih. The scene was recorded with a cell phone to humiliate Emad between his friends and neighbors. The scene propagated till it was posted on several blogs at the end of 2006. Among those blogs was that of Wael Abbass,
www.misrdigital.com. Satellite media and the printed press were forced to discuss this incident , which turned to a public opinion case. The case ended with an unprecedented verdict; the officer Islam Nabih and Reda Fathi, the secretary of police, were sentenced to 3 years in prison . Other issues that bloggers have recorded and also turned to cases of public opinion: • The issue of sexual harassment in Egypt; the blogs of Wael Abbas and Malek Mustafa ,
http://malek-x.net posted videos of sexual harassment, that occurred in downtown Cairo during Al Fitr feast in 2006, displaying of groups of girls being harassed. The videos stirred a lot of debate on satellite channels and newspapers, and resulted in highlighting the failure of police in protecting victims of harassment despite their presence in large numbers downtown at the same time of the incident. The Egyptian Ministry of Interior tried to deny those incidents even existed but a number of eyewitnesses and bloggers brought undeniable evidence that made the ministry take preventive measures . • In Morocco, the blogger, Targuist Sniper, managed to disclose corruption of Moroccan police and the Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie in 2007, where he recorded a number of bribes – receiving scenes and posted them on YouTube , after which they spread on blogs and were debated on international media. Unfortunately, this blogger was targeted by the police in Morocco. •The success of the Algerian blogger, Rahalia whose job is sorting newspaper articles and delivering them to the Algerian Parliament Media Commission. As simple as it may seem, his job allowed him to access the archive of officials’ announcements, decisions and related articles leading him to arrive at contradictions, manipulations and lies of official statements. He started writing articles on a limited scale on the internet uncovering those lies. Those articles, were all over the Algerian cyberspace and were successful to bring about change. Rahalia addressed the president himself, through his highly credible articles and documented writings, demanding him to freeze « the hydrocarbon law”, a project to privatize the state oil companies. The president announced before the cabinet that he was sure that this law was full of irregularities • Other countries also witnessed a significant role for blogs in highlighting events and important political crises, such as Darfur crisis. The blog, Shabab Darfur, is one of the main sources that displayed the real situation in Darfur. • Marahin blog ,
http://saltowayyah.katib.org/, in Oman, and Mowaten Emarati ,
http://emarati.katib.org/, in the UAE, as well as the famous blog of Mahmoud Youssef in Bahrain (http:/ / mahmood.tv /) as well as Moroccan blog; Ahjiouj. Examples of violations against Arab bloggers The Arab world is of the worst regions in the world in internet monitoring. Arab bloggers and activists are detained, prosecuted and even tortured. Arab countries are always on the list of internet enemies prepared by Reporters Without Borders. In its report of 2009, which included 12 countries in the world defined as “internet enemies”, 4 Arab countries were listed: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria. There are dozens if not hundreds of bloggers who have been arrested and detained under the emergency laws, and even abducted and tortured, including: • The Egyptian blogger Ahmed Mohsen, 26 years, owner of the blog: Fatth Eineik ,
http://eyestillopen.blogspot.com, who was arrested in May 2009 and charged with “abusing the democratic atmosphere to overthrow the government » . ANHRI described this charge as a black comedy. •The Moroccan blogger; Mohammed Al Raji, was convicted and sentenced to prison because of an article he wrote that criticized royal behavior which he considers encouraging people to be reliant and passive. • Karim Arabji, from Syria, he wrote an article criticizing the Syrian authorities. Consequently, on 13/9/2009, Karim was sentenced to three years in prison for « spreading false news that weakens the sentiment of the nation”. •The Saudi, Fouad AlFarhan, is one of the famous bloggers. His blog is entitled Dean of Saudi Bloggers. He is known for his elegant writings and serious advocacy for reform in his blog ,
http://www.alfarhan.org. His slogan is « in search for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, Shura , and all Islamic lost values for Raghad and Khattab ». He was detained by Saudi authorities for five months without charges and was never put on trial. Afterwards, he was released without giving any reasons for his arrest or release. • Rafat AlGhanem, a Syrian blogger living in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in July 2009 by Saudi security, without justification, and is still detained. And many more: •The Egyptian Mossad Abu Fajr, owner of the blog,
http://wednane3ish.katib.org/, is one of the main callers to stop discrimination against the Egyptian Bedouins of Sinai. Several charges have been fabricated against him by security. After investigations, the general prosecutor released him. Yet, security services arrested him again under the emergency law and he is still detained till this date in spite of more than 15 release orders that have been issued • Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a blogger and journalist, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was arrested, tortured several times and banned from travel. He was arrested allegedly for “disrupting public security”. The Arabic Network believes that the most important cause for detaining Moneim Mahmoud is to smear the good image of any member of Muslim Brotherhood group not what the government is claiming. In his blog, Moneim displays a different profile than the one provided by the government. He defends secularism and different ideologies, reveals torture crimes and participates in campaigns to support freedom of expression. Such an image is one which the Egyptian government is not willing to reveal . Some Egyptian bloggers are still detained , the most famous case is the blogger Kareem Amer, who was arrested in November 2006 and sentenced in February 2007 for 4 years; 3 years for insulting the Islamic religion and 1 year for insulting the President. Kareem should be released in November 2010. He is serving his sentence at Borg Al Arab prison in Alexandria. Kareem Amer has been tortured in prison and is still subjected to harassment. He was deprived of visits several times in 2009. In 2007, an Egyptian judge filed a case for blocking 51 blogs and websites on the internet, claiming they were terrorist websites and detrimental to the state, the police and the President. This law suit is an attempt to block all blogs and websites that revealed the judge’s theft of ANHRI report on the freedom to use Internet in the Arab world in 2006. The case has been refused in December 2007 . In Tunisia, in August 2008, the Tunisian blogger; Zied El Heni, filed a lawsuit against the Tunisian Internet Agency for blocking Facebook until the website was unblocked on 2/9/2008. Under the spotlight: Sami Ben Gharbia Quiet a character, an intense blogger, and a strong defender of democracy. He managed to turn the internet into a tool to resist the autocratic regime in Tunisia. A lot of Arab bloggers followed him and non Arabs learned from him. He is inspiration to many since he is so creative in using the internet to expose oppression and corruption of the Tunisian dictatorship. His story started by escaping from Tunisia through Libya, Niger, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran in order to finally reach Netherlands, where he received political asylum . This is Sami Ben Gharbia , the Tunisian blogger, creator of the map of Tunisian prisons , in which are used many Internet techniques in which he excels in order to show the cruel penal policy, which rendered Tunisia among the top states in the number of prisoners per population. The Tunisian government denied all punitive practices. However, the truth that Ghariba uncovered show that there are two version of Tunisia; the first Tunisia is the green one where tourists enjoys, provided that they shut up completely and have money, the other one is the a big prison for all opponents and human rights activist or even those concerned with the country. Second Tunisia raises some questions, where an answer will not be found, but rather silencing the mouth that uttered the question. Sami Ben Gharbia uses the Internet creatively to expose corruption and the dark side of Tunisia. He introduced a film that traces the Tunisian presidential plane and its suspicious use in things not related to state affairs. No wonder, Ben Gharbia has become a target for campaigns of slander and for fierce attack from the Tunisian government officials, agents, informants in overseas embassies. By launching such campaigns they convey the message to their masters in Tunisia, they are doing their homework, no matter how these campaigns would lack sincerity or credibility. Some official told Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights, « Sami Ben Gharbia is a sincere young man who loves his country. He does not create or fabricate any of these scandals, he only reveals them » . Ben Gharbia also revealed that, Ezz Al Din Hammadi, director of the tourist office at the Tunisian Embassy in Washington, reserved the domain name of presidential campaign of 2009 for the candidate Zein El Abidine Ben Ali since 2004, precisely 25 days only after the « victory » of Ben Ali in the presidential elections held on 24/102004. As well as logging more than 80 domain names mostly all related to media, political and tourist structures in Tunisia! Ben Gharbia considered this the first semi-formal appeal to President Ben Ali to get nominate .
Facebook
Background Were Facebook a state it would have been the fourth largest in terms of population. It is ruled by a 25-year old. Mark Zuckerberg did not realize the major leap he had created online, particularly within the so-called social networks when he participated with his university colleagues at the time Dustin Moskowitz and Chris Hughes who majored in computer science to establish the Facebook as a social network in 2004. He then allowed in members from the universities of Stanford, Colombia and Yale. Thus, the site expanded and opened up to all of Boston’s schools and Ivy League universities. Gradually, it became accessible to many universities in Canada and the United States. On 26 September 2006 the site opened its doors to all individuals aged 13 or older who have working email addresses. Membership then expanded until it included over 250 million users worldwide in July 2009. In October 2008 Facebook administrators announced the choice of Dublin, Ireland, as an international headquarters. Facebook Nature and Characteristics Facebook is a Web 2.0 social networking website. Membership is free. It is run by Facebook Limited Liability Company. Users can join city, work, school or regional networks to communicate and interact with others. Users can also add people to their friend lists and send messages, as well as update their personal files and introduce themselves to friends. Facebook has a number of features that allow users to communicate with each other. These features include the « Wall, » a space on each user’s profile page that allows friends to send different messages to the user. There is also the « Poke » feature which allows users to send a poke to attract attention to each other. It is a notification to the user that a friend is greeting them. The « Photos » feature enables users to download albums and photos from their computers to the site. The « Status » feature allows users to notify friends of their whereabouts and what they are doing at any given moment. Any user who can view another’s profile can also view their wall depending on the privacy settings. In July 2007 Facebook allowed the possibility of attaching messages that contain more than just text to the wall. Over time, Facebook started adding many new features. On 6 September 2006 the News Feed was announced. The News Feed appears on the Home page for all users, highlighting some information, such as changes to user profiles, upcoming events and user friends’ birthdays. This feature was initially met with dissatisfaction, as some complained of poor organization and unwanted data, while others expressed fears that this may facilitate tracking their personal activities, such as changes in their relationships, various events and chats. In response, Zuckerberg apologized for the site’s failure to provide appropriate features that can help maintain the privacy of individuals. Since then, users have the ability to control the type of data they share spontaneously with friends. Moreover, users can prevent their friends from viewing updates regarding specific activities, such as profile changes, their wall messages and recently added friends. The Facebook Notes feature was introduced on 22 August 2006, a feature related to blogging that allows the addition of marks and images. Users were later able to import blogs from Zhanga, Live Journal, blogger and other blogging sites. During 7 April 2008 week, Facebook launched an application that allows instant messaging to communication networks using the Comet program. It was called Chat and allows users to communicate with their friends. It is similar in function to desktop instant messaging (chat). Facebook currently ranks fifth globally in terms of user visits. It is also among the most famous sites in terms of image upload which reach up to 14 million pictures daily. A few months ago many countries started recognizing Facebook in courts. In December 2008 the Supreme Court of the Australian capital’s County acknowledged Facebook as a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. This may be the first court ruling worldwide that recognizes summons served through Facebook as legally binding. In March 2009 New Zealand’s Supreme Court judge David Gindal authorized Axe Market Garden Company to submit the legal papers incriminating defendant Craig Axe through Facebook. On the other hand, in Italy, the emergence of pro-mafia groups caused the State concern. This led the government, following a brief debate, to hasten to issue a law that would require ISPs to restrict access to entire sites in case the sites refused to remove illegal content. The Attorney-General can require such deletions in case a site is suspected of publishing « incriminating statements, whether in defense or as incitement to crime. » The Senate approved the amendment on February 5, 2008, which is expected to be approved without change by the Senate’s other legislative body before becoming effective immediately. Facebook and other sites, including Google, criticized this amendment stressing its dire consequences for the freedom of expression for those users who did not violate any laws. Characteristics of Arab presence on Facebook The increasing demand on Facebook among Arab youth, particularly after the introduction of some modifications and adapting it to allow the use of the Arabic language contributed to the increase of its use in the Arab region. Facebook contributed to the success of the 6th April Movement strike which started with a Facebook group as its communication capacity exceeds all that provided by classic Internet communication means, such as Messenger, mailing groups, forusm etc. Facebook allows the highest levels of communication. The number Arab users on Facebook until September 2009 approached 12 million , a large number for a site that was not known to Arabs before 2006. Following are the most important uses of Facebook in the Arab world: 1. Entertainment Facebook fulfilled public need for entertainment and communication due to the magnitude of interesting applications. Some very successful groups emerged which achieved great popularity at the level of entertainment. As example is the group called « Sorry, Shombongo!! The Egyptian Campaign in Favor of the Speaking Monkey, » the members of which reached 17,637. It is a group that mocks the ads of a mobile phone company. Another example is a group called « Doomsday Newspaper Headlines, » which makes fun through imagining the headlines of Egyptian government, opposition and independent newspapers on Doomsday. 2. Politics and religion The other side of Facebook use is directed toward a social nature, which tends to be either political or reform-minded in the Arab world. The religious use of Facebook may preach and advocate for religion, recall its teachings when dealing at the virtual environment level, or urge people to do good and practices relief activities that aim to help the poor and those in need. There is a growing trend within Facebook to invest it in relief and charitable work. This trend moves toward achieving charity objectives, such as providing the poor with appropriate winter clothes, donate blood, feed the poor and contribute to associations and organizations that help the poor. For example, there are groups called « I, too, want to do good, » « Humanitarian action for good, » and « Palestinian Medical Relief. » There are those who use Facebook to achieve a social goal under a religious banner. There is also an overlap between political and relief activists who raise the Islamic banner, and activists who raise a purely religious banner. Christian Arab Facebook members rarely mix the religious and the political. However, it is not rare to find Christians raising the relief banner. For example, there different groups were created under the name « Everything but God’s Prophet, » the members of which reached 192,009, the « Jesus Christ » group the members of which reached 32,506, or the group « Each good deed receives a ten-fold reward. » Some groups that support some current issues were created, such as the Muslims for Andrew and Mario, in addition to groups that disagree with Muslims Brotherhood, such as the group « We don’t want the Muslim Brotherhood. » Facebook as a virtual environment for freedoms Facebook offered great potential as it has created a virtual environment for activists to exercise their freedoms. Thus, Facebook had an obvious impact on Arab public opinion. It has become some governments’ arch « enemy » as they failed to control it, particularly that is has become one of the main tools and platforms upon which political powers and activists relied to enrich the spirit of enthusiasm among users in general, and youth in particular, as the group that uses the Internet most. Egypt’s 6th April Movement as a model Egypt was among the Arab first countries to use Facebook. The Egypt network includes about 845,000 members. It is the third site most visited by Egyptians. Facebook affected Egypt’s political life after some youth announced their solidarity with the workers’ strike on 6th April 2008. They adopted journalist Magdy Ahmed Hussein’s idea of a general strike in Egypt not restricted to workers only. The movement started by forming groups to spread the strike idea through messages. A young Egyptian female called Israa Abdel-Fattah created the group where she called for the 6th April 2008 strike. Over 71,000 persons joined the group. On the other hand, a young man called Karim al-Sayyad created another group called « Yes to Gamal Mubarak » rejecting the strike idea and supporting Egypt’s President’s son Gamal Mubarak. The 6th April Group enjoyed incredible success whereas the group supporting Gamal Mubarak failed painfully. This prompted some of Egypt’s opposition parties and movements to support the strike idea , such as the Real Estate Tax employees’ movement, the education sector administrative and education movement, Egypt’s Bar Association and the university professors’ 9th March Movement, in addition to some intellectuals, bloggers and Internet activists. The strike idea spread in a short time throughout Egypt under the slogan: « Stay at home. » They also called for demonstrations in several places in Cairo, Alexandria and Mehalla. A number of members were detained about the strike. The reactions of human rights organizations to the movement varied. Egypt’s ruling party on Facebook The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) realized the importance of the Internet as a weapon which has become a chronic headache, particularly after it sparked the famous strike, the 6th April Movement and the movement against succession or those opposed to the NDP. Thus, new counter-groups emerged that started a dialogue and debate about the nomination of Gamal Mubarak for president, including the following: – Yes or no to the Gamal Mubarak for president – Gamal Mubarak, why not? No idea before? – Mubarak is the best currently to rule Egypt, and Gamal to succeed him. Express your point of view – Who wants Gamal as president? – Why not Gamal for president? Due to the novelty of the use of Internet as a means to promote the ruling party in Egypt, the results are not clear yet. However, the experiment itself shows its reputation and impact which may prompt other Arab parties and ruling regimes to follow the pro-democracy movement example, particularly after the success in adding this site to the most significant tools for change and political struggle. Blocking Facebook Some countries prohibited Facebook access due to its nature that allows free entry and use to everyone. Governments used to depriving their people of freedoms or tools that support these freedoms, it was blocked in Syria under the claim that some citizens use it to incite campaigns against the authorities. Moreover, the Syrian government announced it feared Israeli infiltration of social networks In Syria through Facebook! It was surprising that the dictatorship in Tunisia allowed Facebook without restrictions. It quickly remedied that reverting to its habit and blocked Facebook in August 2008. In response, a journalist filed the first lawsuit of its kind in Tunisia demanding that Facebook be unblocked before the Tunisian president issue directions to allow access to Tunisian users. A spokesman for the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced the prohibition of Facebook’s dating section, while allowing access to other sections. The Palestinian cause on Facebook It was logical for Facebook to become party to the historic conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation, as was the case with other important sites on the Internet. Facebook recently began to play an important political role. It became a new arena for this political conflict on the Palestinian cause. Yediot Ahronot wrote that Jewish settlers were angered that Facebook listed them as residents of Palestine, prompting the site to allow users to change that to Israel. According to female Jordanian blogger Rasha Abdullah, « many groups addressed prominent Palestinian figures, such as Mahmoud Darwish, Naji Al-Ali, George Habash, Ghassan Kanafani, Yasser Arafat, Haidar Abdel-Shafi. Their fans did not restrict themselves to just creating one group for each, tens of groups were created for most of them, particularly Naji Al-Ali who was chosen, along with his symbolic characterHandhala, as the symbols for most Palestinian Facebook users. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict was not restricted to Facebook groups, but extended to applications available to all participants, including the flags, topped by the Palestinian, and the « I am Palestinian » application where Palestinian members can add the flag and decorate their pages with pictures of Palestinian cities, a map of Palestine and pictures of against the occupation. There is also the Causes application where donations are collected for Palestinians, including Free Palestine, the Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees and tens of others. There is also the Fans application which allows the selection of certain figures admired by Facebook members, the most notable were Naji Al-Ali, Mahmoud Darwish, Marwan Barghouti, Ghassan Kanafani, and even singers whose names were linked to the Palestinian cause, including Marcel Khalifa and Naseer Shamma. Moreover, there are the invitations to Palestinian art events inside Palestine and in exile, in addition to groups which chose to address the issue through comedy, including the groups of Abu-Fayek, the Palestinian expressions group, and other groups which celebrate Palestinian rural expressions and dialect. Finally, Palestinian artist paintings are circulated, including the paintings of artists such as Ismail Shammout. Tammam Al-Ak-hal. Naji Al-Ali’s caricatures, as well as slogans, the most prominent of which are photos of the Argentinean fighter Che Guevara wearing a Palestinian scarf.
Twitter
O people, my mother and I are been attacked right now in our house by a neighboring police major and his brother. They injured my head and broke one of my teeth. Police corruption has reached my home. This was a text message sent by the activist and blogger, Wael Abbas, from his mobile phone to more than 2500 people around the world in a few seconds, via Twitter. The incident of attacking the famous Egyptian blogger was very important and what was equally important was the way he used to disseminate the news of assaulting him among large number of friends, whether bloggers or journalists or human rights activists in Egypt and abroad, every second. Wael reported the entire incident; from the beginning of the attack, to the compliant he filed to the general prosecutor, to the investigation done regarding the incident and its conclusion. This was all made possible because of this new and important service which the world knows now as « Twitter ». What is Twitter? Twitter is a popular communication tool in the world of social networking. Twitter provides a micro-blogging service; subscribers can send a text message from any mobile phone to any Twitter subscriber almost for free through the website. A Twiiter subscriber can send message to all friends, acquaintances and whoever wants to be updated with his/her news. For example, BBC covered the attack on Wael Abbas, before any other media channel, because it was among those who have registered to follow up Wael Abbas’s news posted on Twitter. The Start of Twitter The idea of Twitter began when Jack Dorsey wanted to be informed with what all his friends are doing at all times. So, he told his friends about the idea and they decided to create a prototype of the website to see whether or not it will work out. In the beginning of the year 2006, the website appeared as a research project conducted by the American company, Obvious, in San Francisco. It was officially launched in October 2006, then, the company decided to make it an independent company under the name Twitter, in April 2007. What are you doing now? This is the question that anyone has to answer to become a Twitter member. This question has to be answered in a maximum of 140 words; it’s almost the same length of a SMS, after logging to the main page to create an account. When the subscriber presses ‘send’, his/her message reaches all his/her friends or followers on their mobiles and their Twitter accounts simultaneously. This only costs the same price of a short SMS. In addition, you receive the messages of all people you asked to « follow » on your mobile phone and your Twitter home page. The emergence of Twitter has changed the media scene in the world. Twitter transformed from being just a means for social networking into a means to mobilize support for opposition and activists. It is used to mobilize people or for obtaining information, like what happened in the U.S. and Iranian elections. It has also become an important tool in the hands of reporters to cover any significant events on the ground, like protests and demonstrations, every moment, using only their mobile phone and their Twitter account. Like many political leaders around the world wanted to create heir own blogs in order to communicate with their supporters, a lot of people join Twitter in order to inform their acquaintances and followers with their most recent news rapidly. The Twitter Revolution This is the most common expression describing the popular uprising that accompanied the Iranian elections at the beginning of the summer of this year. Maybe the tremendous growth of the messages sent via Twitter is partly because of the role Twitter played in this popular uprising. Before the elections, the Iranian government has imposed extremely restrictive regulations on mass media (local and satellite TV channels, and local newspapers), with the exception of mass media supportive of President Ahmadinejad. Moreover, Tehran imposed restrictions on international newspapers and the use of all modern technologies, like the Internet. Also, international news agencies were prevented from covering the elections and the events that followed it, like the demonstrations and arrests. Facebook website was blocked days before the elections in order to prevent the opposition from mobilizing their supporters. In the face of this media blackout, the new generation of supporters of the opposition candidate, Moussaoui, did not find any means to communicate and share news and information but Twitter. They began a major campaign on Twitter to mobilize supporters of Moussaoui and organize and scheduling demonstrations. For example, the sent a message saying: “alert…Moussaoui’s rally is still on time at five o’clock in the evening”. By those text messages sent via Twitter, they also managed to uncover the crimes and gross violations perpetrated by the Iranian police, like raiding houses and arrests. This made the voice of the Iranian opposition reach the world. The Iranian government found itself in a difficult position. Unlike most websites, imposing censorship on Twitter will not work due to its various applications on mobile phones. A message sent by an activist in Iran, via their mobiles, will be seen by millions abroad through Twitter. As a result, the Iranian government announced it would summon to court any person who uses Twitter to send information about the Iranian elections. In addition, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned against the use of technological devices, like Twitter, to stir up riots or demonstrations. Unprecedented growth At the beginning of November 2009, the total number of messages transmitted via Twitter reached more than five billion messages. The number increased in December to reach 6 billion messages; this means that 1 billion messages are sent via Twitter monthly. Twitter and Arab Internet activists Although, Twitter users, worldwide, did not exceeded six million, at the beginning of this year, their commitment to the website resulted in an increase in the number of users to reach 1 billion. It is expected that the number would reach 350 million within two years; in 2011. Despite the successful use of the website by some Arab activists, this use is still within the limits of individual cases. Twitter failed to become as effective forums, blogs, and later Facebook. Besides, the successful cases of activists in the Arab world using Twitter, a recent study by « Spot on Public Relations » stated that « about 60% of Twitter users in the Middle East and North Africa are bloggers and 90% of the users are using Facebook. Moreover, there is a significant increase in the number of journalists joining Twitter. The study added that; « over 75% of Twitter users in the Middle East and North Africa are also participating in « LinkedIn », and more than 70% said that they use Twitter every day, while 96% stated that in the future, they will use it on once a day if not more ». This data shows that Twitter is developing in the region . In addition, to the previously mentioned case of Wael Abbas, some people Tweeted actively during the famous 6th of April strike in 2008. Bloggers wanted to report the developments and the arrests that have been taking place. For example, the American journalist, James Buck, informed everyone that he was arrested while covering the strike. Buck was able to update everyone with the news of his, every moment, until he was released. The tremendous capabilities of this website enable it to play a major role, as big as the role played by blogs and Facebook, in supporting democracy in the Arab world.
YouTube and Flickr
YouTube None of the three young men, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Kareem, who met in San Francisco, have thought that their idea to send video clips of a large volume over the internet will become one of the most important applications of the internet today, despite its recent establishment (2005). After one year of the launch of this website, YouTube , it turned to be among the top ten viewed websites world wide. At the end of December, 2008, the number of video clips seen by Americans on YouTube was about 5.4 billion video clips. The website as of this date contains only 520 video clip ; which means that there are clips that have been viewed thousands of times, if not millions. Arabs and YouTube Arab internet activists, especially bloggers, did not miss such an opportunity to broadcast audio and video clips of every day life in Arab countries. These scenes will not possibly be aired on Arabic media, which are mostly controlled by Arabic governments, specifically if it’s about prohibited topics such as advocating for democracy or disclosing corruption or repression swarming the Arab world. Perhaps, the most famous Egyptian torture case, known as Emad Al Kabir and Islam Nabih, about a police officer, Islam Nabih, who sexually abused a van driver, Al Kabir. Police staff recorded the rape scene (which was done by a stick) in order to send it via Bluetooth to the driver’s friends and neighbors to cause him more humiliation. The clip reached the mobile phone of the blogger, Mohamed Khaled (of the DemaghMak blog), who posted it on his blog. Wael Abbas, a well-known Egyptian blogger, posted the video on his blog, Misr Digital. The independent weekly paper, Al Fajr, found out about the story and published it. The aggressor, the police officer, was put on trial and sentenced to 3 years in prison. This incident was a turning point of how the public views torture. Now, what human rights organizations have been saying that torture is a systematic policy of the ministry of interior was finally realized by the public. This disclosure opened the door for broadcasting every day life scenes in all aspects. The number of views of this torture video exceeded 12 million. Fake Porn Scenes Viewed By Millions Following the discovery of the capabilities of YouTube , it was not only used to expose corruption in the Arab world, but to broadcast sex video clips as well. Pornographic scenes within YouTube are the most viewed websites around the world. In the Arab world, where sex is prohibited, they have become the target of millions of Arab visitors where they search for the sex scenes whether from a movie or from real life. One clip was entitled “Rape of a tanned Girl” brought more than 7.5 million viewers, however, it was actually about three young Egyptian young men laughing, as if mocking the viewers and browsers . The word « rape » was the real attraction of this huge traffic. The scene held hundreds of comments, mostly insults by frustrated visitors, who were looking for real sex scenes; a need of which they are so deprived. War on YouTube Blocking is useless. This is the lesson learnt by many Arab governments, so they finally decided to use YouTube for their own interest. They hired some internet users to change the classical unpleasant images of some regimes. For instance, the Saudi authorities paid some users to delete “inappropriate” content on YouTube , through launching a campaign called « cleansing YouTube » deleting all scenes that insults the Saudi royal family . In Kuwait, Kuwaiti bloggers launched « The Battle of YouTube » campaign to mock a call from the parliament member, Mohammad Al Mateiry, to block YouTube » as religious and national duty ». According to Al Mateiry, the website contains pornographic or anti- Islam content. The blog, Ketaba Mesmaria, stated that this call is similar to clerics call in Saudi Arabia in the last century against wireless devices in Saudi Arabia and the radio, a call which was defeated eventually by the voice of reason and call for freedom YouTube, the Most Blocked Website Although, YouTube has been launched recently, only 4 years ago, but it is becoming the most blocked website in various countries around the world, if not the most ever. It was blocked in many countries (such as Turkey, Thailand, UAE, Syria, Pakistan, Tunisia, Sudan, Indonesia, Bahrain, Kuwait…etc.). Although, some of these countries and others have blocked it for only a few days, the declared reasons were mostly due to the “pornographic content ». YouTube has stated explicitly, in the second item of terms of use, that the uploading pornographic scenes was not allowed. However, YouTube , major corporations and many countries, finally, gave in and announced that they lost the war with YouTube users, who manipulated this condition in many ways, by splitting videos or giving them different names, which led finally to uploading porn scenes. It is to be noted that a huge amount of video clips is posted on the website, more than thousands of clips every minute. Flickr Flickr is an application website of Web 2.0. It allows users to upload their photos to be displayed in galleries with themes tailored to different photos. This rendered Flickr a favorite website for most professional photographers of the world, journalists and activists in the Arab world. Flickr was created in 2002 by Ludi Corporation in Vancouver, Canada. The Beta pilot version was launched in February 2004. In March 2005, Yahoo bought Ludi Corporation and Flickr. In a week, starting from 28/6/2005, all content was moved from Canada to servers in the US. Hence, all Flickr material was subject to U.S. laws. In May 2006, Flickr websites implemented some changes in the design and allowed users to participate in the development Not the Best for Arabs Although, Flickr is among the top websites in the world, it is not among the websites most commonly used in the Arab world. One of the reasons may be the limited space for free images; there are 200 images only for uncharged use. For more images, it charges $25 per image. Though, it could be affordable for some, it is still difficult for young people to pay online as the method of payment is by using credit card. Most internet websites would not accept credit cards from Arab countries. For this important reason, news in closed communities, such as the Arab world, travel fast. However , millions of Arab internet users know that Flickr has deleted the images of the famous Egyptian blogger, Hossam el-Hamalawy, of the Israeli war on Gaza at the end of December 2008 and the beginning of January 2009, despite that it is known that Flickr has a two year deletion policy. However, some Arab activists became experts in the use of Flickr such as the leftist blogger, Hossam el-Hamalawy, owner of the blog, Arabawy. Hossam is among the most famous Flickr users in advocating for political reform movements in the Arab world. The political background of Hossam is his motive for this effective use of Flickr. His gallery on Flickr contains 92 albums having more than 2000 images. It is a real pleasure to visit his well organized albums which in effect speak well for his ideas The success of the Hossam Hamalawy’s gallery is due to his proficiency in Flickr use, as well as the high credibility of his images, whether its scenes of protests or faces of people he knows, and how he displays them. On the other hand, the National Democratic Party failed to make a success on Flickr. The NDP gallery on Flickr contained images of the conference of November 2009, 90% of them are of Gamal Mubarak. Though, the images were carefully chosen, yet no comments were posted . Since the internet is a free space, the Arab internet users only seek truthful and credible information not official information and images like the NDP’s. Flickr Blocked Unfortunately, the UAE was one of two countries who have blocked Flickr; the other country is Saudi Arabia! What really made UAE’s internet users’ wonder why Saudi Arabia would lift its block of the website, while the UAE is still insists on blocking the website? Publications of ANHRI Some of them are available for free at the network headquarter 1-The Internet In the Arab World A New Space of Repression? 2-Web Design for Civil Society Institutes 3-Electronic Media and Human Rights 4-Implacable Adversaries: Arab Governments and the Internet 5-Who Pays the Price? Advertisements in the Egyptian Press Beautifying the Image of the Tunisian Dictatorship 6-Insult and Libel And Freedom of Opinion and Expression 7-Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Egypt « 2007 Annual Report » 8-Human Rights.. Basic Information 9-The right to life 10-Map of Islamic Movements In Egypt 11-Demonstrations of Freedom of Expression 1909 12-Freedom of Opinion and Expression in Egypt « 2007 Annual Report 13-Behind The Walls of Fear Fayoum Under Siege 14-Right to life Juvenile Execution 15-Freedom of the Press in Egypt (Source: « The Initiative For an Open Arab Internet » visité le 28 decembre 2009)