Security, Power, and the Arab Spring
The people of the Middle East and Northern Africa took the world by storm when a series of protests and uprisings initiated in 2010. Individuals from several Muslim countries, including Syria, Morroco, Libya and Egypt led and took part in these protests in an effort to overthrow the countries’ governments and follow a pro-democracy agenda. Despite these protests being largely centred around Muslim majority areas, people from all over the world also stood in support of the pro-democratic views of the individuals. The political, economic and social impacts of these Arab Springs, also known as the Arab Uprisings, are prominent till this day, 8 years later.
These first protests erupted in Tunisia after a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation. This particular individual doused himself with gasoline and proceeded to light himself on fire after local police officers confiscated his fares, ridiculed and abused him. Meanwhile the governor of the region refused to take any action in response. This injustice catalyzed the protests with individuals across nations seeking justice within their governments and law enforcement.
These uprisings quickly spread, and within a few months, Egyptians had also started to protest. What triggered their outcry was the passing of a young man Khaled Said, who was beaten to death by two police officers. After the case was taken to court, the law enforcement insisted Said had choked on a bag of hashish. However, it was proven that the individual was targeted by the police because he posted a video exposing them for involvement in drug dealing. This issue quickly caught the public’s attention when graphic images of his dead body were shared on the internet, leading to Dubai-based Egyptian Google Executive, Wael Ghoneim raising awareness about the topic. He was able to do this after creating a Facebook group named “We Are All Khaled Said.” Soon after, the news spread on various other social networking sites and attracted a larger foreign audience.
Through social media and the Internet, people started to protest, highlighting several issues present within these regions and remembered Said as a martyr. This online presence and strength fueled the physical protests that took place in the country further on in the year. Also known as the Egyptian Revolution, the Egyptian people repeatedly used one common slogan “The People Want to Bring Down Regime” (al-shaab yurid isqat al-nizam), and raised their voice against, censorship (specifically media censorship), brutality, corruption, unemployment and other prominent issues within the society.
Social media was the masses’ most powerful tool, specifically Facebook and Twitter, with 23,000 tweets against the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak surfacing daily. To tackle this, the government suddenly severed all connections to the aforementioned social networking sites. The government also denied people Internet connections and blocked mobile networks. Egypt had no source of contact with the outside world, forcing hackers to exert all their efforts while activist groups like “We Rebuild” came up with a more long-term solution.
Although it has been over 8 years since the Revolution died down, Egypt’s government has continuously exercised censorship reforms over the years. As of 2017, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, the Egyptian government has blocked more than 60 sites. Under the regime of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi, there has been a strict crackdown on freedom of expression, specifically through social media sites, with several individuals being imprisoned for simply expressing their views. Due to the serious nature of the issue, Amnesty International called for the “unconditional and immediate” release of these individuals.
There have been strong debates about this issue, with several politicians arguing that censorship is done to protect the nationals of a country. However, censorship has been misused, often on the extreme spectrum, a clear violation of the basic rights given to every person on this planet. The question still remains: at what point does a person in power cross the boundaries which infringe upon the sovereignty of a nation and its inhabitants?
These first protests erupted in Tunisia after a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation. This particular individual doused himself with gasoline and proceeded to light himself on fire after local police officers confiscated his fares, ridiculed and abused him. Meanwhile the governor of the region refused to take any action in response. This injustice catalyzed the protests with individuals across nations seeking justice within their governments and law enforcement.
These uprisings quickly spread, and within a few months, Egyptians had also started to protest. What triggered their outcry was the passing of a young man Khaled Said, who was beaten to death by two police officers. After the case was taken to court, the law enforcement insisted Said had choked on a bag of hashish. However, it was proven that the individual was targeted by the police because he posted a video exposing them for involvement in drug dealing. This issue quickly caught the public’s attention when graphic images of his dead body were shared on the internet, leading to Dubai-based Egyptian Google Executive, Wael Ghoneim raising awareness about the topic. He was able to do this after creating a Facebook group named “We Are All Khaled Said.” Soon after, the news spread on various other social networking sites and attracted a larger foreign audience.
Through social media and the Internet, people started to protest, highlighting several issues present within these regions and remembered Said as a martyr. This online presence and strength fueled the physical protests that took place in the country further on in the year. Also known as the Egyptian Revolution, the Egyptian people repeatedly used one common slogan “The People Want to Bring Down Regime” (al-shaab yurid isqat al-nizam), and raised their voice against, censorship (specifically media censorship), brutality, corruption, unemployment and other prominent issues within the society.
Social media was the masses’ most powerful tool, specifically Facebook and Twitter, with 23,000 tweets against the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak surfacing daily. To tackle this, the government suddenly severed all connections to the aforementioned social networking sites. The government also denied people Internet connections and blocked mobile networks. Egypt had no source of contact with the outside world, forcing hackers to exert all their efforts while activist groups like “We Rebuild” came up with a more long-term solution.
Although it has been over 8 years since the Revolution died down, Egypt’s government has continuously exercised censorship reforms over the years. As of 2017, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, the Egyptian government has blocked more than 60 sites. Under the regime of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi, there has been a strict crackdown on freedom of expression, specifically through social media sites, with several individuals being imprisoned for simply expressing their views. Due to the serious nature of the issue, Amnesty International called for the “unconditional and immediate” release of these individuals.
There have been strong debates about this issue, with several politicians arguing that censorship is done to protect the nationals of a country. However, censorship has been misused, often on the extreme spectrum, a clear violation of the basic rights given to every person on this planet. The question still remains: at what point does a person in power cross the boundaries which infringe upon the sovereignty of a nation and its inhabitants?
Speech Censorship in Egypt
Once hailed for its relative freedom of expression, Egypt has recently witnessed unrest as it bears the brunt of a brutal ideological conflict starting in 1985. The government and a rampant Islamist movement competed and asserted their dominance over Egypt, with an assailment of freedom of speech evident on both sides of the conflict. Lingering threats from religiously motivated violence, forced prosecutions in the courts and potential attacks by Islamist militants stirred a blood-curdling fear in journalists. In order to address this issue, the Hosni Mubarak administration decided to pass excessively restrictive press laws, effectively allowing the state to maintain a stranglehold on public broadcasting networks. The administration encountered armed insurrection from marginalized and fanatical communities, in response to which the government's security forces enacted mass arbitrary imprisonment, widespread torture and unfair trials and executions as means of retaliation. The late 1900s were a dark period in Egypt’s history and one could only hope that the coming years would herald the dawn of a less dystopian and more democratic era. In 2018, Amnesty International stated, “It is currently more dangerous to criticize the government in Egypt than at any time in the country’s recent history. Egyptians living under President al-Sisi are treated as criminals simply for peacefully expressing their opinions.”
Fast-forward to three decades later. If you believed (or rather, hoped) that no recent surge of turmoil in the Egyptian lands could hold a candle to the socio-political extremities under former President Hosni Mubarak’s repressive thirty year rule, the current President al-Sisi’s administration would beg to differ. The crackdown on freedom of speech has scaled unprecedented levels with citizens now fleeing for their lives in order to avoid state-sanctioned persecution. Thousands of political commentators, journalists, human rights activists and opposition leaders have been barred for so much as speaking up, the reason unabashedly attributed to 'rebellious' social media activity or a history of activism. Around forty individuals were incarcerated in 2018 for being party to a 'terrorist group', merely because they were silent spectators to a peaceful protest against feverishly escalating metro fares. In Egypt, a free expression of art seems equivalent to a seemingly unattainable pipe dream with artists, commentators, satirists and humourists being penalized under the pretext of flouting rules of 'public decency' or other ambiguously defined offenses which hold the slightest dissent tantamount to a criminal act. All under the facade of 'anti-terrorism' policies, the Egyptian parliament does not need any prior consultation with the civil society or 'free' press to adopt more restrictive ‘speech’ laws.
With a rapid ascent in the number of reported Covid-19 cases in Egypt, one would anticipate a potential reshuffling in the prioritization of administrative policies. However, the government continues to strengthen its grip on information outflow and media outlets to muzzle dissent instead of introducing the least bit of transparency during a global pandemic. Under the guise of safeguarding public health by censoring the spread of disinformation, these fake-news crackdowns are just a fig leaf intended to impose further censorship on political dissent. One would think seeking judicial remedy to battle legislative extremities seems like a viable alternative, but according to recent Amnesty International reports (May 2020), the same Egyptian court has arbitrarily extended 'pretrial' detentions of over a thousand detainees for up to two years, the legal upper limit on the extension of such detentions. Furthermore, the decision was passed in the absence of any and all defendants, an egregious violation of legal principles.
The odds are not in the public's favour but even in the midst of dire circumstances, the glint of a silver lining must be duly acknowledged. Despite an unprecedented curtailment of human rights and apprehension entrenching itself as an inherent characteristic of public life, we must take a moment to remember the unsung heroes who continue to rebel against injustice and peacefully challenge the official narrative by risking their own autonomy in the process. The intensifying importance of press freedom and peaceful rebellions could not be emphasized enough in the Egyptian context, which emerged as a shimmering beacon of hope in these dark times.
Fast-forward to three decades later. If you believed (or rather, hoped) that no recent surge of turmoil in the Egyptian lands could hold a candle to the socio-political extremities under former President Hosni Mubarak’s repressive thirty year rule, the current President al-Sisi’s administration would beg to differ. The crackdown on freedom of speech has scaled unprecedented levels with citizens now fleeing for their lives in order to avoid state-sanctioned persecution. Thousands of political commentators, journalists, human rights activists and opposition leaders have been barred for so much as speaking up, the reason unabashedly attributed to 'rebellious' social media activity or a history of activism. Around forty individuals were incarcerated in 2018 for being party to a 'terrorist group', merely because they were silent spectators to a peaceful protest against feverishly escalating metro fares. In Egypt, a free expression of art seems equivalent to a seemingly unattainable pipe dream with artists, commentators, satirists and humourists being penalized under the pretext of flouting rules of 'public decency' or other ambiguously defined offenses which hold the slightest dissent tantamount to a criminal act. All under the facade of 'anti-terrorism' policies, the Egyptian parliament does not need any prior consultation with the civil society or 'free' press to adopt more restrictive ‘speech’ laws.
With a rapid ascent in the number of reported Covid-19 cases in Egypt, one would anticipate a potential reshuffling in the prioritization of administrative policies. However, the government continues to strengthen its grip on information outflow and media outlets to muzzle dissent instead of introducing the least bit of transparency during a global pandemic. Under the guise of safeguarding public health by censoring the spread of disinformation, these fake-news crackdowns are just a fig leaf intended to impose further censorship on political dissent. One would think seeking judicial remedy to battle legislative extremities seems like a viable alternative, but according to recent Amnesty International reports (May 2020), the same Egyptian court has arbitrarily extended 'pretrial' detentions of over a thousand detainees for up to two years, the legal upper limit on the extension of such detentions. Furthermore, the decision was passed in the absence of any and all defendants, an egregious violation of legal principles.
The odds are not in the public's favour but even in the midst of dire circumstances, the glint of a silver lining must be duly acknowledged. Despite an unprecedented curtailment of human rights and apprehension entrenching itself as an inherent characteristic of public life, we must take a moment to remember the unsung heroes who continue to rebel against injustice and peacefully challenge the official narrative by risking their own autonomy in the process. The intensifying importance of press freedom and peaceful rebellions could not be emphasized enough in the Egyptian context, which emerged as a shimmering beacon of hope in these dark times.
