Abstract
The Facebook page named “We Are All Khalid Said” (WaaKS) was an important driver of the Egyptian uprising that in 2011 toppled Hosni Mubarak, the nation’s president of 30 years. When the revolution happened, US media elevated the founder of this page to the status of Egyptian national hero. At the same time, they ascribed to the revolution that the page had helped spawn the desire to for freedom and democracy. This chapter analyzes just how the page worked and managed to politicize previously apathetic youth, drawing on a memoir written by its administrator, as well as a detailed reading of the Facebook page itself. It then explains in what ways the ascriptions that American pundits imposed on the uprising were deeply flawed, making revolutionary success appear much likelier than it actually was.
Independent researcher on the politics of the Middle East and the author of Third World Citizens and the Information Technology Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan 2010), Nivien@NivienSaleh.info
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Saleh, N. (2017). When Pundits Fail: “We Are All Khalid Said” and the Challenge of Democratizing Egypt. In: Çakmak, C. (eds) The Arab Spring, Civil Society, and Innovative Activism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57177-9_3
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