We social media advocates sit in our offices and Starbucks discussing new options and how they affect the brands and companies we work with. Then, those mundane marketing uses go out the window when you see events transpiring on the world stage that really illustrate the incredible power of these new media. We glibly talk about the Social Media Revolution and suddenly real revolutions are happening.
Just this week, CNN reported that an Egyptian man named his newborn daughter “Facebook” in honor of the role the social media network played in bringing about a revolution. Amazing, and emblematic of the role the network played in the recent events there. (And probably a name that’s going to bring about some schoolyard teasing.)
Shortly after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power, Google employee and activist Wael Ghonim spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and credited Facebook with the success of the Egyptian people’s uprising. What’s interesting here is that there was no central charismatic leader in the mix – the revolution was crowd-sourced.
Facebook executives took unusual steps to protect the identity of protest leaders during the Egypt uprising. The Daily Beast reported on how the social media giant scrambled to keep pace with Egypt’s revolution. Despite all efforts by the government, the size and speed of Facebook and Twitter were impossible to shut down.
There was talk about how: “Twitter and Facebook are shields against future genocides. Like new antibodies in the body of humanity.” But many commentators noted that these technologies are enabling, but politically neutral. So, they could as easily be used for suppression, as for liberation.
One of the first things the Egyptian military did after President Hosni Mubarek resigned was create a Facebook page. That’s pretty telling.
by 
Comments on this entry are closed.