Digital media now a powerful weapon for peaceful protest

When the revolution began in Egypt in January 2011, it had one extremely powerful tool on its side: digital communications and social media. Protests were organised and mobilised through social networks Facebook and Twitter as opponents of the Hosni Mubarak regime began demonstrating in the streets, taking over Tahrir Square in Cairo.

IT specialist Ahmad Gharbeia saw the revolution firsthand, camping out in the streets around Tahrir as supporters of then-president Hosni Mubarak attacked the protesters in the central plaza.

“It was an interesting time,” he said. “The ambiguity about everything was a governing factor.”

Although there were times of danger, Gharbeia said, the protesters inside the square felt safe surrounded by support, although getting in and out of the area was more dangerous.

Internet cut
The power of online tools in helping to mobilise the protests was recognised by the government when, near the end of January 2011, it decided to cut off internet access.

Mobile communications were also suspended in certain areas, leaving the protesters effectively cut off from the outside world.

The digital frontier had been weakened slightly, with the outage lasting for about a week. The protests, meanwhile, were continuing.

“Our major concern was getting information to the outside world,” said Gharbeia. For this, he and others established collection points for digital photographs that became a growing archive of material that has since been taken over by other groups.

Photographs were copied to DVDs and drives, and given to as many people as possible to increase the chance of the material getting out of Egypt and onto the world stage through the traditional media channels.

Internet access was restored in early February, and the rest, as they say, is history. The digital front of the revolution may have been won in Egypt, but there is still some way to go.

“Part of the struggle now is on the legislative frontier: activists now feel that it is the time to make sure the state is unable to abuse the citizens’ rights to use communications tools and technology to convene, organise and be socially and politically active,” he said.

“The laws of communication and access to information are examples where I’m focusing at the moment.”

For several years before the revolution began in Egypt, Gharbeia was involved in training Arab activists how to use privacy tools online to keep their identities safe. As a blogger, he had built up contacts with others in the online community, and had begun getting closer to human rights groups and participating in their campaigns.

“I was becoming integrated into circles of activists and participating in the mobilisation that was taking place in Egypt,” he said. “I’m also by practice an IT expert. In the years before that, I had accumulated knowledge in the fields of privacy and anonymity due to my own curiosity in that field.

"So when the time came I was prepared to transfer that knowledge to other people, to help them understand the tools, understand the principles behind privacy and anonymity, and how the internet works in this regard."

Front Line Defenders
It was this type of work that brought him to the attention of human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, with whom he has worked for several years.

While anonymity may not be a major concern in some areas, for others, staying anonymous is vital to continuing their activist work.

In Egypt, during the revolution, people worked in public, Gharbeia said.

“You cannot attempt to change a society while being anonymous. You have to have a face for other people to recognise and you need to be a human being with personal stories, with a name,” he explained. “Being anonymous reduces your appreciation by the people, because they don’t see a face behind the writings.

“In other countries it was different. In Syria for example, it was really dangerous. People easily got kidnapped and disappeared; this didn’t happen in Egypt. The mode of oppression was different in each country.”

The advent of digital communications had already begun to spark change before the revolution began in 2011.

“Many people thought they were alone. This kind of communication brought them together and created circles and networks of people who had common interests, and the overall common interest of change, of doing things in a better way. I think these were the introductory networks that later on, years after that, led to the activist groups that initiated the revolution in Egypt and others.”

It had also begun to transform the media, which was state-controlled.

Some of the bloggers that helped spread the news online have become journalists, enhancing the media’s skill level and credibility.

Digital communications was also responsible for educating younger people about struggles that had begun years before, and had no means of telling their story to a wider audience.

“There are many cases where the struggles benefited much from cyber activism,” said Gharbeia. “The younger generations probably did not hear of these struggles that have been going for years; they found out about them very recently.”

Meanwhile, the cyber activists have turned to local communities to keep the momentum going and pass the baton on from the online world.

Gharbeia will be in Dublin next week to speak at Frontline's Tech Defenders event.

Tech Defenders is a support group of Irish technology companies and individuals who will support the digital security work undertaken by Front Line Defenders, providing funding, facilities and promotion for the project. It plans to meet twice a year to discuss how best to improve the digital security of human rights defenders who may find themselves at risk.

Part of this defence network is what is known as Security in a Box, the Front Line Defenders/Tactical Technology collection of digital security tools to which Gharbeia has also contributed significantly.

He is fully behind the Tech Defenders project.

“In many cases they are the only link and the only channel open with the world about what is happening in their specific localities and countries,” said Gharbeia.

"Making sure these defenders are safe and are able to perform this role is very important. Tech Defenders has my unconditional support because I know how valuable these people are for their causes and for the people who work with them."

Technology companies interested in Tech Defenders can contact Charlie Lamson: charlie@frontlinedefenders.org