Social media’s effect in Egypt critical, but not unprecedented

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Social media sites many students use to keep up with friends helped Egyptian protesters who ousted former President Hosni Mubarak from his three decades of authoritarian rule.

Bad Axe sophomore Nick Varner said though social media had an integral role, it was not an all-new use of Facebook.

“Egypt wasn’t the first to use social media in this way,” he said. “Tunisia, a few weeks before, had used Facebook and Twitter to depose their old regime.”

Jim Melton, assistant professor of business information systems, related the movie “The Social Network” to parts of the world with more government control and how the image of Mark Zuckerberg is received in comparison with his image in the U.S.

“Zuckerberg has somewhat of a negative image in the U.S., especially after the movie was released,” Melton said. ”People are concerned about privacy. But when the government has control, people want things like Facebook. In Tunisia, there were people holding up posters of Zuckerberg saying he was great.”

Melton informed students of the relevance of the topic to the events in Egypt in his new class, BIS 280: Social Media and Emerging Technology in Business.

Though the protests in Egypt were not business-related, they have the same idea of viral information, Melton said. One main protestor got the word out through Facebook and created a group, just like a business, he said.

“Social media really empowered the protests,” Melton said. “It’s harder to control news through these social networks.”

East Grand Rapids sophomore Alyson Cole said Facebook made people more willing to get involved.

“If I were an Egyptian youth, I would be more inclined to get involved if I were to find out about a protest via Facebook, seeing as how it is a huge part of young adult communication these days,” Cole said.

Not the most significant

Alan Rudy, associate professor of sociology, anthopology and social work, said social media played a part, but was not the most significant impetus for the protests.

“I think social media were important — look how hard the Mubarak regime tried to cut off Internet and cellular communication early on,” Rudy said, “but I don’t think it was the most important element because of the inherent class bias of social media and the trans-class nature of the protests.”

Melton said the government needs to allow social media to appease the population, even if it makes the government look bad.

“(Wael Ghonim, who is) considered a national hero, who is also an executive for Google, created the main Facebook protesting group,” Melton said. “He was held by the government for 12 days, blindfolded, and was just released a few days ago.”

Dave London, former CMU professor of advertising and a professor at the American University of Cairo, agreed with Melton. He said the protests were a product of social networking as it has an incredible pace and difficulty for governmental control.

“If there was ever a problem with people disagreeing with the government, activists were either imprisoned or they disappeared,” London said.