The Internet Social Media and the Arabic Spring: A Study of Egyptian Users Usability

Abstract:

The 2011 Egyptian protests began on Tuesday 25 January 2011. On January 25 and 26, the Egyptian government blocked Twitter in Egypt and later Face book was blocked as well.[1] On January 27, various reports declared that access to the Internet in the whole country had been shut down. Later reports stated shutting down the country's official Domain Name System, causing almost completely disconnection of the country from the global Internet.[2]  Most observers of the Egyptian scene at that time, claimed that the responsible governmental authorities achieved this, in an attempt to stop mobilization for anti-government protests.[3]  The famous phrase has been circulating on the Internet in the February 2011, after the abandonment of the political regime which rules the country for 30 years,  says "revolution started on Face book and Twitter gave her a boost and led by young Egyptian Internet activists".

Did social media cause the Egyptian revolution?  Did Face book and Twitter sparked, and accelerated Egypt’s revolutionary fire?. How did these tools speed up the process by helping people who are already frustrated with the status quo to be organized? , Was that the sheer speed with which the Egyptian Political regime fell in 18 days, where modern communications technology has had the most potent impact? How did the Egyptian youth interaction with the Internet changes during the last decade?