A recent surge of social activism among Egyptians has alerted the government to a networking force that has thus far eluded their control: Facebook. Since the 6 April general strike, rumour has it that the social networking website has been front and centre on the Egyptian authorities' radar as they mull over the possibility of a block.
Further:
Wael Nawara, an avid blogger and Vice Chairman of Egypt's El Ghad opposition party, once depended on independent El Ghad newspaper to represent an alternative voice to the official publications. The paper was founded in late 2004, with famed Al Dustour editor-in-chief Ibrahim Eissa at the helm, but after a string of scandals, the paper was finally banned in August 2007. Within days of the banning Nawara turned to Facebook as a channel to broadcast his oppositional message, initially starting with two groups: The Third Republic and Egypt Remembers."
Facebook came as a surprise to everyone," Nawara explained. "When the government realized that tens of thousands of people and activists can be rallied in a few days time using viral communication techniques available on Facebook, they started to monitor the social network more closely. The word is that there is even a special division called the State Security Investigation Police for Facebook."
Holy crap.
(Courtesy of the Arab Press Network)
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