Manama: When Mohammad Bu Azizi set himself on fire in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, news of the self-immolation was first broadcast on Al Jazeera after his cousin was able to contact the pan-Arab broadcaster.
However, in the dramatic events that unfolded in the subsequent days, social media played a predominant role, eclipsing hundreds of sources of news available.
In Tunisia, Facebook, which attracts more than half of the people looking for news and entertainment (52 per cent, according to a study prepared by Northwestern University in Qatar) was the main source of exchanging and spreading information about the protests taking place in the country, toppling the regime and ending 23 years of repression.
The success of Facebook in reinforcing networking among Tunisians during the days up to the revolution and afterwards is due mainly to the fact that no other social networking site of consequence has really gained traction in the country. Many of the social networking sites familiar in the West or even in the Arabian Gulf, such as Twitter and Instagram, have never achieved any form of popularity in Tunisia. The popularity of Facebook in Tunisia holds true for both men and women and across all age groups. Facebook was also widely used in Egypt in the run-up to January 25, 2011 when the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak came to an end.
Uncensored information
The social networking site was crucial in countering the propaganda in official media and in providing prompt and uncensored information on the events unfolding in the country. It was a remarkable achievement — mostly by young people — in a country where only one in five Egyptians (22 per cent) uses the internet and where people do not usually access Western websites overall, mainly for the low proficiency level in languages other than Arabic.
Facebook was able to overcome obstacles to easy and open communication often provided by smartphone applications since most Egyptians still used regular cellphones.
In Libya, Facebook was used by many people cooperating to oust the regime of Muammar Gaddafi to gather information about his supporters and their movements and convey it to Nato forces for possible action from the sky.
