Social Media And The Arab Spring - 1447 Words

According to the data from the Arab Social Media Report 2011 by Mourtada and Salem, the amount social media usage increased immensely during the Arab Spring period from January 1 to March 30. The number of Facebook users in the Arab nations had almost doubled, up from 14,791,972 (as of April 2010) to 27,711,503 (as of April 2011) (Mourtada and Salem 9). Similarly, in the first three months of 2011, the number of tweets increased from 55 million to 155 million a day (Mourtada and Salem 15). This increase in social media usage was to spread awareness regarding the Arab Spring revolution. The Arab Spring was a series of democratic revolutions in the Middle East that resulted in government changes in some Arab countries. According to Howard†¦show more content†¦According to Fahim in Slap to a Man’s Pride Set Off Tumult in Tunisia, on Dec. 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, a street vendor, placed himself on fire after a policewoman embarrassed him in public and forecl osed his fruit stand. After a few weeks, the images of Bouazizi in flames were released to the internet by Shamseddine Abidi, a 29-year old interior designer. Abidi posted the images on his Facebook page. At the same time, news of the unrest was spreading quickly on Arabic television channels, as well as the foreign news channels (5). Similar to Bouazizi in Tunisia, in Preston’s Movement Began With Outrage and a Facebook Page That Gave It an Outlet, a picture of Khaled Mohamed Said’s bruised face, from Egypt, was spread on the internet by Said s family and caused an enormous outcry. According to data from a project on Information Technology and Political Islam by Howard, Aiden, Deen, Muzammil, Will, and Marwa, during four days from May 16 to May 20, 2011, the most prominent videos loaded into YouTube with the keyword â€Å"Egypt†, jan25 received nearly 2,127,384 million views (29). Another example, is from the backdrop of the Syrian refugees crisis 2015, which American media does not cover as much, but through many of the images that were posted on my friends’ Facebooks, I know this is a â€Å"great humanitarian crisis. Social media has created a bridge that brings people in the world together in spite of the difference of