Egypt has the largest and most active blogosphere in the Arab world and in a country that has been governed under emergency rule by Hosni Mubarak since 1981--the political revolution is happening on the internet.
Egypt, the Middle East’s business leader, is unique among its Arab neighbors in
that it does not restrict the flow of information online. This is due to the
“Ministry of Communications and Information Technology “ who have a policy of
keeping the internet open to encourage commerce and investment. In addition, the
government also promotes a one laptop per child policy and offers payment plans for
as little as 45 Egyptian pounds ($8) a month to students who wish to purchase
computers.
Online young Egyptian activists speak freely and can escape political repression by
challenging the regime openly on their blogs. They write about the country’s record
of human rights abuses, police torture and social injustices, often distributing
information about events and incidents that would otherwise be unreported. But these
bloggers also use the internet and social networking tools such as facebook and
twitter to get people onto the street by rallying anti-government protestors,
organizing workers’ strikes and mobilizing demonstrators in cities across the
country.
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Many bloggers are the children of Cairo’s intellectuals, radicals and activists and
they gather late into the night in the shabby downtown street-cafes their parents
inhabited in the 1960’s and 70’s, cafes like Al Borsah and Takeiba, where the
conversation over mint tea or Arabic coffee is always revolutionary and
anti-Mubarak. Among the busy and familiar crowds are IT specialists, human rights
lawyers, and independent newspaper editors, all of whom work with and support the
city’s bloggers and activists.
Cyber activism, however, comes at a price in Egypt and bloggers are routinely
arrested and imprisoned for speaking out. During these detainments, police torture
is not uncommon and there are currently more than 20 people serving prison sentences
for “crimes” connected to cyber activism in the country.
Perhaps the internet won’t be able to dispossess the regime any time soon, but it
has initiated change within civil society and Egyptians have learned to speak out,
and to resist. They have also found a way to mobilize themselves, and people are
beginning to take to the streets in demonstration again for the first time in more
than 20 years.
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