“From the streets of Cairo and the Arab
Spring, to Occupy Wall Street, from the busy
political calendar to the aftermath of the
tsunami in Japan, social media was not only sharing the news but driving it.”
–Dan Rather
Today marks the day in 2011, when the Arab Spring became an international movement after Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign in Egypt. This culminated out of a lot of social movements in the polity to counteract police brutality, authoritarianism and widespread corruption in the country. The most notable igniting point for the protest was the “We are all Khaled Said” Movement. Said’s brutal treatment by the police and lack of due legal progress was highlighted on a Facebook page. In the contemporary time, this serves as a lesson for ruling regimes to make sure that they stop tyranny on the local populace. Like a volcano, the pressure slowly builds up in the polity and eventually erupts. The advent of social media has greatly aided this process, as people have a space to mobilize and speak freely, with no governmental regulation, apart from ineffective access blockage attempts.