Away with the Gatekeepers: Social Media as a Tool Facilitating Nonviolent Struggle During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

In the wake of the January 25, 2011 Revolution in Egypt there has been much speculation in Western media about the role social media played in bringing down Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of autocratic rule, many even going so far as to call it a "Facebook revolution." This book argues that social media greatly enhanced Egyptian nonviolent struggle and political defiance as defined by nonviolent struggle theorists Gene Sharp and Peter Ackerman, in particular by enabling coordinated mass actio...