User:Highwi01/sandbox

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 #jan25 was commonly used on Twitter as an expression of cyberactivism. The movement first gained traction during January 25th, 2011, but would continue to be a symbol for freedom and democracy throughout the revolution.

Historical Context

"#jan25" was a hashtag campaign made popular during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Through the use of twitter, the #jan25 campaign was targeted at spreading awareness of movements/protests about poverty, unemployment, government corruption, and the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Many protesters, including those in Tahrir Square, live-tweeted events as they unfolded using the label #jan25. This allowed for a spread of live information including police brutality, arrests, chants, and increased awareness on both a local and global level. During the protests, the Egyptian Government blocked Twitter, but activists were able to bypass this using proxy servers.

Original Tweet

The original tweet using #jan25 was posted by the user @alya1989262, an said the following:


 * "Over 16000 of us are taking to the streets on #jan25! #egypt #tunisia #revolution"

In an interview with blog Hope140, 21-year old @alya1989262 said the following: ''
 * "Twitter is a very important tool for protesters, as evidenced by the fact it and Facebook were repeatedly blocked in Egypt as the protests flared up. We use it to campaign and spread the          word about protests/stands---hashtags are invaluable in that respect, and to share news quickly and efficiently, with our own 140-char commentary on them, and subsequently have conversations  with random people/complete strangers. But most importantly, it allows us to share on the ground info like police brutality, things to watch out for, activists getting arrested, etc."''