Twitter And Facebook Are The New Weapons Of Middle East Protest

The footage was as immediate as it was electrifying. Egypt's biggest demonstrations in three decades were relayed virtually live to the rest of the world by people posting mobile phone pictures via Twitter, the US-based microblogging service.

The protests were largely organised by apparently leaderless online activists on another hugely popular website, Facebook. They asked people to stand up, proclaiming: We have to show the world that we are not a cowardly, submissive people.

The swift and unexpected overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-old regime in Tunisia and the mass unrest in Egypt have sparked a lively debate on how far social media networks can challenge governments around the world.

Link : http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/twitter-and-facebook-are-the-new-weapons-of-middle-east-protest