No, the Egyptian protests didn’t start like this…
However, it did start in a eerily similar fashion. Here’s the story on how Facebook started the Egyptian protests…
On July 9th, 2010 a Facebook group that was started called “We are all Khaled Said” . The group was started to honor a young Egyptian named, Khaled Said whom died in a controversial death.
According to Wikipedia: Khaled Said is, a young businessman from Alexandria, was reportedly beaten to death by local police this summer – well before rumblings of the country’s current unrest. But a Facebook page that bears his name has been one of the driving forces behind the upheaval that has been shocking Egypt….
This Facebook page still exists although many of the original members cannot access it (due to a countrywide internet blockade) to see what is going on. We encourage you to join the page so you can get a different opinion on what is going on in that country. It is really quite remarkable to go back to January 25th, 2011 and see the Egyptian National and International Protests being organized. Then read how much has happened since then, it is absolutely remarkable what that country has gone through and what it is going through now.
The page is run by an anonymous self-proclaimed Egyptian known as El Saheed which translates to Martyr.
Now here is where things get interesting…
“The power of Facebook is that our updates reach to everyone’s wall,” El Shaheed said. “Some of the videos we publish get shared on people’s walls more than 30,000 times. That’s how powerful a virus can be…Once it’s out, it goes everywhere. It’s unstoppable.”
Here is the original post that started the call for January 25th, 2011 to be a day of PEACEFUL national protest in Egypt….
Dated January 15 at 6:06am
The rest, as they say is history. On January 25th, 2011 a Facebook group of approximately 25,000 (at the time) Egyptians started a revolution.
[ Disclaimer: We aren’t journalists. We just find it very interesting how Facebook sparked a national revolution. Read more from real journalists at Newsweek. ]
