Facebook Friend or Foe: Private Platforms and the Right to Expression in Pre- and Post-Arab Spring Egypt

• Post by: Marcelo Pena
• June 2, 2024
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Natalie Larsen, University of Chicago

Abstract

A decade after the Arab Spring, present-day restrictions on the human right to expression in Egypt reveal a shift in the narrative of technologies: tools of public liberation or state control. While used in 2011 to share information, connect with others, and gain global attention, technologies in today’s Egypt control the public, limit their information access, and restrict their freedom of expression. In contrast to the Arab Spring, public and private actors employ a new architecture to control the public sphere, persecute the public with misinformation, and manipulate users—undermining human rights. Through the case study of post-Arab Spring Egypt, this paper explores how perceptions of technologies shifted from their perception of advancing political mobilization to impeding public expression. As the transition from the Arab Spring to today reveals, authoritarian and capitalist tactics, just like technologies, can change significantly in a short time. Human rights protections must also keep up.