This paper aims to examine the different ways through which Social Media was used during the Egyptian Revolution, as well as the impact it had on facilitating social change. This paper begins by examining the use of Social Media to build and mobilize a community. It then assesses how social media was used to transform people from networked individualism to collected action, followed by investigating the influence of social media on social change. Subsequently, the paper will reattribute social media to the advancement of Web 2.0/Web 3.0, and will lastly assess the implications and use of social media in more recent contexts wherein it was used to promote social change. Upon addressing the previous notions, social media is found to have an undeniable influence on social change, especially as it is adopted across various phases of the uprising, including its utilization for the initial formation of communities, as well as for promoting the collective movement. 

Keywords: social media, social change, revolutions, online communities

Social media has inevitably become a vital tool that plays an important role in our everyday existence. Nonetheless, the progression of social media not only drives our day-to-day social communication but has also been utilized as a catalyst for social change (Schaffer, 2021). In recent years, particularly in 2011, we have come to experience a rise in public distress driven by the demand for both political and legal change across Arab countries (Chebib & Sohail, 2011, p. 139). The latter had resulted in a series of demonstrations and protests taking place in the Arab world since late 2010, ultimately giving rise to the notorious “Arab Spring 2011” (Chebib & Sohail, 2011, p. 139). 

In light of the previous, social media and its affordances have had an indispensable role in the success of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, especially as social media was distinguished as one of the tools that brought forth “such a huge impact on the revolution despite the government’s attempts to block and control it” (Chebib & Sohail, 2011, p. 139). The wide use of social media has been deemed to make communication more rapid and efficient, therefore cultivating a widespread exposure of information among large populations which was not possible in the past (Ruby, 2014). Correspondingly, the progressive flow of information makes it difficult to silence people and control the growth of groups (Ruby, 2014), thus contributing to the success of modern era revolutions. In addition to the previous, social media technologies have also been contemplated as tools for spreading awareness, especially through facilitating “the rise of a new breed of citizen journalists with cell phone cameras who self publish to websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WordPress” (Ruby, 2014, p. 7; Barrons, 2012; Wilson & Dunn, 2011).  

In acknowledgement of the aforementioned, this paper aims to examine the different ways through which Social Media was used during the Egyptian Revolution, as well as the impact it had on facilitating social change. This paper begins by examining the use of Social Media to build and mobilize a community. It then assesses how social media was used to transform people from networked individualism to collected action, followed by investigating the influence of social media on social change. Subsequently, the paper will reattribute social media to the advancement of Web 2.0/Web 3.0, and will lastly assess the implications and use of social media in more recent contexts wherein it was used to promote social change

Social Media was recognized to have a fundamental impact on the overall success of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, especially as it was used to facilitate “the staging of a successful first protest in a revolutionary cascade” (Clarke & Koçak, 2020, p. 1025) defined as ‘first mover mobilization’. Social media was credited to have a significant role in driving a “discrete mobilizational outcome during the Egyptian Revolution: first mover mobilization on January 25, 2011” (Clarke & Koçak, 2020, p. 1035). To contextualize the previous, ‘first movers’ are defined as individuals who participate in the first protest of a revolutionary cascade, which includes groups/masses that combine both political activists and leaders, as well as regular citizens (Clarke & Koçak, 2020). The prominence of first mover mobilization within the case of Egypt’s revolution is undeniable, as it has been discerned to be a critical factor in triggering the 2011 uprising (Clarke & Koçak, 2020). 

The wide range of affordances offered by social media is considered to have an integral role in communicating and structuring uprisings irrespectively. The availability of social networking sites (SNS), which are defined as online platforms that allow users to create a public profile and interact with other users (Techopedia, n.d.). Relatively, social networking sites were being used by activist groups to form and communicate potential communities across large spans (Abdallah, 2019). This substantiates that web-based social media platforms possess great power as an organizational instrument, especially due to their facilitation of distribution and reachability (Abdallah, 2019). The latter depicts social media and SNSs as a vital space for activists to create a community comprising of a population who share common motives/interests, by joining forces, gain the confidence required to collectively withstand the risks of regime suppression (Abdallah, 2019). 

Correspondingly, Clarke & Koçak (2020) observed social media to certainly have a crucial role in the mobilization, particularly the platforms Facebook and Twitter. The aforementioned platforms were observed to help significant numbers of individuals who would otherwise be isolated to identify each other, form networks and relationships, and coordinate their actions, thus contributing to the successful January 25 protests (Clarke & Koçak, 2020). In a more specific context, certain properties associated with Facebook including; likes, walls, and friends; allowed activists to identify and openly communicate with others, therefore aiding in the movement, recruitment, and protest planning and coordination (Clarke & Koçak, 2020). Contrastingly, Twitter as a platform was an important source used to offer live updates regarding protest logistics on the day of the event, wherein specific features of the platform — such as “instantaneous updating, retweets, and hashtags  — were conducive to the sending of real-time information from protests themselves” (Clarke & Koçak, 2020, p. 1036). Furthermore, the critical role of social media, particularly the recently mentioned platforms, was agreed upon by many scholars as they have substantiated the significant role that social media played in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution (Bossung, 2011; Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014; Kidd & McIntosh, 2016; Castells, 2012; Clarke & Koçak, 2020). 

The recent altogether depicts the vital role that social media, as well as particular platforms, played in building and mobilizing communities that were united with the intent to impose social change. Nevertheless, understanding how social media is generally utilized to impose social change holds great importance. 

The role of social media as a tool to facilitate and impose social change is considered vital in the success of recent revolutions, including the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Social media was acclaimed as a tool utilized to create multimodal networking, which involved individuals who “consistently choose to occupy urban space, but in a way that is deeply connected to cyber-spatial networking” (Kidd & McIntosh, 2016, p. 786).

Social media also served numerous purposes in the revolution. This included the utilization of social media as a tool “to manage information, distribute functions, and enable users, or protesters, with online tools and information to organize protests and become activists” (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014, p. 366). Furthermore, recent research supports that internet technologies allow protestors to coordinate by adopting a decentralized approach, wherein a central authority is not required (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014). The adoption of this form of organization is proposed to offer several advantages, which include the creation of “more flexible forms of collective action and it has radically changed the way in which grassroots politics operate” (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014, p. 368). 

Altogether, the previous depicts the role that social media plays in forming networks or communities, therefore acting as an enabler/facilitator to social change due to guiding, as well as enabling the rise and success of revolutions. However, to further exemplify the influence of social media on imposing social change, it is important to examine the ways through which social media was used to transform people from networked individualism to collected action.

One of the primal driving factors of the Egyptian Revolution was the use of social media to transform people from networked individualism to collective action. Collective action occurs when a specific party or group work together to achieve a set objective (Dowding, 2013). Furthermore, it represents the association of individuals towards a united action, often in the form of nations against an aggressor (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). 

Social Networking Sites (SNS) have been widely acknowledged to function as a resource for “the mobilization organization and collective actions of socio-political groups” (Abdallah, 2019, p. 8). Putting the prior more clearly, Social Networking Sites (SNS) are defined as; “web-based service that allow[s] users to 1) construct a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system, 2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and 3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007, as cited in Zhang & Leung, 2015, p. 1008). In verification of the aforesaid, Eltantawy (2011) adds that through the internet, social media as communication technology has become a resource for the mobilization of collective action, thus facilitating the creation, organization and implementation of the social movement worldwide. The development of social media also offers possibilities for driving Web-fueled social movements, hence transforming the landscape of collective action (Eltantawy, 2011). 

In addition to the previous, the utilization of social media as a tool for promoting social change is regarded to have several benefits. By providing a voice to the public, social media holds up wide-reaching effects that include; “making citizens better informed, turning them into activists, facilitating public organization and collective action, and eventually helping the development of democratic institutions that could replace autocratic regimes” (Smidi & Shahin, 2017, p. 198). In turn, social media acts as an enabler for activists, as not only does it facilitate processes of planning, organizing, and debating, it presents activists with a new form of communicating and executing the revolution, thus serving as an important new resource for collective action (Eltantawy, 2011). 

In line with the previous, social media is deemed as a novel resource that provides a “swiftness in receiving and disseminating information; helped to build and strengthen ties among activists; and increased interaction among protesters and between protesters and the rest of the world” (Eltantawy, 2011, p. 1218). Moreover, social media technologies are deemed as important, instrumental resources for collective action and social change, primarily due to their ubiquity, as well as their capability to communicate messages to massive, global audiences (Eltantawy, 2011). 

The recent altogether confirms how social media and its affordances are utilized as a tool to transform people from an individualistic state to collective action and participation. In further contribution to the thesis, it is important to reattribute social media to Web 2.0/Web 3.0, including how web technologies facilitate social media, thanks to giving rise to interactivity and two-way communication as well as facilitating the creation of online communities, ultimately substantiating how social media and technologies have become essential tools that are used to instigate social change.

Highlighting the role that Web 2.0/3.0 plays in cultivating social media provide critical insight that allows for a greater appreciation of its role and impact on social change. 

To fully appreciate the role that social media plays in influencing social change, it is important to recognize the phenomenon of Web 2.0 and its connotation. Web 2.0 is recognized as “the second generation of the web, wherein interoperable, user-centered web applications and services promote social connectedness, media and information sharing, user-created content, and collaboration among individuals and organizations” (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014, p. 368). 

The internet and Web 2.0 technologies are deemed as an outstanding complement for social protests, especially as it empowers citizens with a variety of tools that enables them to accomplish their main goal, which is to protest (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014).  Respectively, these online tools transformed the street protest and the online protest, ultimately giving rise to what is known as ‘cyberactivism’ (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014). Furthermore, the commercial use of internet technologies and the uprise of web 2.0 tools are inferred to have cultivated a new culture of online protest. Additionally, with co-creation being the primal characteristic of social media, it is important to acknowledge that web 2.0 serves as a platform for this collaboration, which spans across all connected devices, thus encouraging the “creation, organization, linking, and sharing of content” (Sandoval-Almazán & Gil-Garcia, 2014, p. 368). 

Applying the latter in the context of the Egyptian Revolution, it is important to realize the role of web 2.0 in the revolution and its outcome. An example of these discourses is demonstrated by Wael Ghonim in his book called; Revolution 2.0 (Ghonim, 2012, as cited in Oh, Eom, & Rao, 2015). Ghonim was widely recognized as one of the organizers of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, and a prominent figure with regards to the revolution. Ghonim contends that “this leaderless revolution was the Revolution 2.0, echoing the participatory and people-centric characteristics of Web 2.0 technologies” (Ghonim, 2012, as cited in Oh, Eom, & Rao, 2015, p. 210).  In his interview with CBS, he emphasizes that “if there was no social network, it (the 2011 Egypt Revolution] would have never been sparked. […..] Without Facebook, without Twitter, without Google, without YouTube, this would never have happened” (CBS, 2011, as cited in Oh, Eom, & Rao, 2015, p. 210).

Collectively, the latter portrays how web 2.0 and its affordances act as a facilitator to social change through giving rise to social media and technologies, therefore further substantiating the role that social media plays in enabling, as well as influencing social change. Subsequently, assessing the implications and use of social media in more recent contexts wherein social media was used to promote social change would present additional insight into the use of social media to promote social change.  

In conclusion, the aforementioned comprehensively evaluates how social media influences social change while shedding light, particularly on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and the implications social media carried towards it. This included an analysis of the following; how social media was in the development and mobilization of communities, the role of social media as a tool for social change, how social media transforms people from networked individualism to collected action, as well as the reattribution of social media to web 2.0. Altogether, the presented arguments regarding the use of social media in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution ascertain how social media catalyzes social change across different phases including the initial formation of communities, as well as the promotion of a coordinated movement. Nevertheless, to further contribute towards identifying the role of social media in facilitating social change, it is critical to assess the use of social media in stimulating social change across more recent instances. Relatively, this would include the analysis of how social media was utilized in the case of more recent political activism regimes. 

The 2020 Farmer’s Protests in India is a valuable example which illustrates how social media was used to promote that specific cause, therefore inflicting social change. The declaration of Indian Farm Bills which were passed by the parliament in September 2020 had allowed the entry of corporations into certain domains of crop trading (Dash et al., 2022). As a result, protests were led by farmers as the new configurations of crops and purchase prices had threatened their trades (Dash et al., 2022). The Indian Government was found to disrupt the dissemination of information around the protest in several ways, which included shutting down mobile internet services at protest sites, as well as suspending Twitter accounts associated with the protest (Kyyrö, 2021). Additionally, the Indian Government was described as being “committed in their efforts of constructing their preferred narrative about the farm bills and the protest” as they have aroused criminal charges against journalists that reported the protests (Kyyrö, 2021). To counter this, the farmers began utilizing social media as a tool to publicize their perspectives on the issue whilst aiming to share information that better informs and educates people about their side of the argument, as well as potentially mobilize individuals for their cause (Kyyrö, 2021). 

Another prominent example is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Thanks to their widespread social media presence, the BLM movement facilitated the organization of countless rallies and events involving vast participants primarily through social media (Olson, 2021). The movement’s hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, has been recognized as “the backbone of an entire movement” (Olson, 2021, p. 9). The BLM movement was initiated as a reactionary digital tool through the use of the #BlackLivesMatter, making its message proactive on social media as it was utilized to instigate action from both young and old generations of activists across the socioeconomic, race, and sexuality spectrum (Olson, 2021). Social media was also recognized as a source of ongoing and real information, as it had the power to summon people to the streets and coordinate their movements presently, while also having the ability to quash spurious media narratives with the force of thousands of tweets (Stephen, 2015). Supporters of the activism movement have been found to utilize “Twitter, specifically, to share breaking news, circulate images and engage with news stories about corresponding protests” (Auxier, 2020). The use of the #BlackLivesMatter went viral again in 2020, when an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, was killed by a Caucasian Minneapolis police officer which resulted in rampant protests, ultimately ascertaining the power and reach of social media platforms.

In adherence to the latter, it remains important to study the impact of more modern social media and communication technologies on social change, especially in more modern contexts. This could involve a study of how more modern social media technologies such as ‘geo-tracking’ or ‘geo-filters’ can be used as a means of allowing people to identify hotspots that further attract them towards gatherings/masses demanding social change. 

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