The Arab Spring began in December 2010 in Tunisia after a fruit seller set himself on fire to protest government corruption and oppression. Massive street protests erupted demanding political reform. Through social media, the protests spread to other countries in the region, toppling authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. Social media played a key role in organizing and publicizing the protests internationally, and though some governments tried to shut down access, citizens found ways to communicate and coordinate their uprisings.

1. The Arab Spring
Finding the Value of Social
Engagement through Social
Media and the Political
Revolution that ‘sharing’ has
incited.

2. The ‘Arab Spring’ was an outburst of revolutionary insurgence that sprang forth in the
Arab world on December of 2010.
It was catalyzed by 3 significant events.
1. 17th of December 2010 – an educated Tunisian fruit seller, Mohammed Bouazizi, sets himself
on fire in protest to having his wares confiscated and being assaulted by a municipal official.
2.
Enraged Tunisians afflicted by the same suppressed problems take to the streets in massive
protests, triggering the Tunisian uprising.
3.
Under the protection of the army, the protest movement that begins in Sidi Bouzid swells to
become a nationwide phenomenon, with Tunisians eventually ousting their President, Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali out of office on January 15, 2011.

3. The ‘Arab Spring’ was an outburst of revolutionary insurgence that sprang forth in the
Arab world on December of 2010. It started with the self - immolation of Mohd Bouzazi, an
educated fruit seller vexed with the corruption that prevailed in the administrative system.
Mohamed Bouazizi remained in a coma till the day he died on Jan 4, 2010. He was only 26. His death galvanizes the determination of the entire
nation and they rise up against their corrupt government.

4. Oppression and injustice in the Middle East and North Africa have resulted in people revolting against
their governments for years, but in small groups which soon faded off. After the the self - immolation of
Mohd Bouzazi, enraged Tunisians afflicted by the same suppressed problems take to the streets in
massive protests, triggering the Tunisian uprising.

5. The street protests marked the beginning of the pressing
demand for transparency and anti-corruption.
Unemployment Extreme Poverty Police Brutality Wide-scale corruption Nepotism Kleptocracy
A demonstrator holding a breadstick (representing food shortages and rising costs of living), pleads with security forces whilst being filmed by
international media. (Reuters)

6. Violence escalates as Security Police respond with strong-arm-tactics.
The turning point comes when Tunisia’s army chief, General Rachid Ammar declines the Presidential order to shoot protestors and the
Tunisian military intervenes.

7. 15 Jan, 2011 – President Ben Ali steps down after 23 year rule.
The ousting of Ben Ali happened 10 days after Mohamed Bouazizi died. It is the first ever non-violent ousting of a President in history.

8. Milestone: The time it takes to oust Ben Ali
from office 29 days
17th Dec, 2010
15 Jan, 2011
Mohamed Bouazizi was hailed as a martyr and credited for galvanizing the frustrations of the region’s youth against their governments.

9. The unrest spread like a wild fire, especially on social media platforms like twitter,
facebook and youtube, bringing people together in civil resistance….
Social media platforms and mobile devices were used as a revolutionary tool to spread the word about the revolution.

10. …. and resulted in great changes across the Middle East and North Africa in a very short
period of time.
Change spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa, like a domino effect, with the world as a stage, calling to question the actions
of political rulers.

11. •
Governments and the dictators in Egypt (President tried to shut down internet) and Libya fell.
•
Civil uprisings developed in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen.
•
Major protests started in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman. Similar but
smaller scaled protests arose in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western
Sahara.
•
The Arab Spring also influenced clashes at the borders of Israel on May 2011 and the
Palestinian 194 movement.

12. Freedom to engage in
discussion and form Analysis
on Government Statements
Social Media
Opportunity for people to be drawn into
extended conversation
(issues that concern them)
Counter Rumor and
Propaganda Tool
Community organizing
platform for Grassroots
Mobilization
Pro – Democratic
Regime Change
Public develops a sense of
Shared grievance
In times of crisis
Consistent sharing and interaction
creates Strong Public Sphere and
a Proactive Civil Society
Role
of:
SOCIAL
MEDIA
in
the
Arab
Spring

13. Tunisia: Example of Social Media
Innovation used as a Revolutionary Tool.
•
Twitter played an important role initial role in Tunisia for much of December.
•
As the revolution gathered steam, Facebook became the main organizing tool for protests and
sharing videos.
•
People in Europe would migrate those videos to Posterous, subsequently uploading them unto
Youtube, and sharing them via Twitter.
•
Hackerspace nawaat.org aggregated these videos as soon as they went up.
•
Global audiences tuned in to Al Jazeera (Qatar-based satellite channel) for livestreams and
dependable information.
•
All these services worked together on top of the platform that the Internet provided.

14. Egypt: Example of Social Media Innovation
used as a Revolutionary Tool.
•
When Egypt’s President tried to shut down the internet, Google and Twitter worked together to
build a speak-to-tweet service.
•
Twitter and Facebook were used to communicate happenings in Egypt to the rest of the world.
•
Tech Analysts used programs like ‘Gephi Graph Streaming’ to chart the speed and growth of
communication (twitter)

15. •
When Egypt’s President tried to shut down the internet, Google an Twitter worked together to
build a speak-to-tweet service.
President Hosni Mubarak tries to shut down the internet in
order to limit communication between protest groups.
He eventually resigns on 11 February, 2011. He was found
guilty of damaging the national economy during protests by
shutting down the internet and various telephone services
and was fine US$33.6 million.
Google engineers, built a system that enabled protesters in Egypt to send
tweets even using just a voice connection. They worked with a small team of
engineers from Twitter and SayNow (a company Google recently acquired) to
build the system.
It provides three international phone numbers and anyone can tweet by
leaving a voicemail. The tweets appear on twitter.com/speak2tweet.”

17. •
Twitter and Facebook were used to communicate happenings in Egypt to the rest of the world.

18. •
Tech Analysts used programs like ‘Gephi Graph Streaming’ to chart the speed and growth of
communication (twitter)
On February 11, 2011, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak bowed to two weeks of nonviolent pressure and resigned from power. Tahrir
Square in Cairo was where the real action was, but an Italian network analyst named André Panisson was watching the news unfold on
Twitter. Over the next hour, he visualized the explosion of tweets and retweets as a network graph, and even though it's nothing more than
dots and lines, the excitement is nearly as palpable as watching it live on CNN.
Before
Right after
Over the course of the hour
Data acquired from Twitter’s API, Gephi Graph Streaming

19. The Arab people’s desire to emancipate themselves from oppression and corrupt
government culminates in a ‘tipping point’ that traverses the issue of morality.
•
The public killing of Colonel Gaddafi is filmed on mobile devices and published unto Youtube.
•
His body is not buried as per the Islamic tradition. Rather it is put on display in a freezer in
Misrata for 4 days. Libyans all over the country come to view it.
•
Despite its graphic content, Youtube has not made any move to remove any videos depicting
the killing of Gaddafi.

20. Conclusion: A revolution like this puts the spotlight on dictators and leaders who,
through the existence of social media as a platform for shared grievance, will
eventually be called to be held accountable for their actions.
•
It was deeply-rooted problems that drove Mohamed Bouazizi to self-immolation. Although he
was hailed as a martyr, his sacrifice and self-immolation was very extreme.
•
Singaporeans have recently experienced similar feedback with regards to Singapore’s
parliamentary elections. When such ignorance exists and carries on, the suppressed emotions
are automatically vented via social media.
•
The power of social media lies in the ability to share emotions across different spectrums. The
strength that the oppressed find, can be catalysts to incite revolutionary change.
•
Social media also promotes the idea of no-censorship and self-broadcasting. However in doing
so, we have traversed a moral dilemma. Was the filming and publication of the killing of Gaddafi
and the participation of NATO, right or wrong?
•
‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable’.
John F. Kennedy