Twittering the Internet Intifada
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After images of Mohamed Bouazizi (the Tunisian who set himself alight, leading to the initial protests) were spread by the "net across the Arab world, other protesters also set themselves alight in Morocco and Saudi Arabia; and in Egypt, eight turned themselves into individual human torches.
But even before Mubarak's departure, the New Media technology had been effectively used to inflame national passions against the Egyptian government after photos of the battered face of Khaled Saieed, a dead victim of alleged police brutality, was circulated through the Internet.
In Egypt, the social networks were also used to "wear down" the police.
Google complained that the Egyptian government had legally forced it to shut down after the security forces realized the protest organizers were using the social networks to play "cat-and-mouse" games with the police.
The country's Internet service had in fact been off between January 28 and February 2.
It was later confirmed, however, that a 30-year-old Google executive was behind the Facebook page which helped spark and kept promoting the Egypt protests.
Wael Ghonim, 30, a Google marketing manager, admitted – after days in detention – that he was the original one behind it all.
In the Middle East today, the New Media is playing – much more effectively – the role played by Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and the BBC in 1989 to spread the revolutionary infection that resulted in the toppling of several East and Central European governments.
The "Internet Intifada" has succeeded in Egypt and the executives of the social networks are waxing warm.
The likes of Google's Ghonim are beaming and bowing in celebration of the way the recent Arab Street protests have opened up another major marketing front, with whole new worlds to conquer.
Promotion of the social networks as new and formidable instruments of protest or weapons of war against governments may not be done through commercial advertising.
However, the major intelligence services in the West have been increasingly embracing the Internet as a security tool.
