The article in the International Journal of Communication titled, “The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions,” discusses the role Twitter played in aiding the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. The authors, Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce and Danah Boyd all have experience in social networking and web ecology research. The researchers

Tunisian Revolution. Source: Jorge Martín, originally appeared in the “Defence of Marxism” homepage

drew from a group of public tweets shared during the Tunisian demonstrations on January 12-19 and the Eyptian demonstrations from January 24-29, 2011. For each dataset, the researchers described the flow of information and discuss certain patterns and types of people who transmitted the information. The Tunisian revolution successfully overthrew President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali following the sel-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, and the Twitter was a mechanism for people to communicate. Many Twitter followers started to use the hashtag #sidibouzid (Lotan 1376). “Sidi Bouzid” was Mohamed Bouazizi’s hometown. Following the success if the Tunisian uprising, Egypt soon followed suit. On January 25, 2011, activists organized a demonstration in Cairo. Activists also used Twitter as a way to communicate, utilizing the hashtag #Jan25 to mark messages of the revolution.

The researchers state that Twitter’s non-reciprocal flow of information allows people to shape how the information flows. While Twitter offers an effiecient way for the exchange of information, there are dangers associated with it as well. The researchers explain,

 

“In situations like these it is often difficult to distinguish between truthful information and rumor, or even to understand where information originates and how it changes over time.”

The researchers decided to look at the flow of information via who is spreading different facts. Their data revealed that social patterns on Twitter may highlight pre-existing relationships among people with similar interests (1397). Conversely, Twitter may have also been a place where people gathered around a shared topic. In this case, the topic was the Tunisian uprisings and Egyptian revolution. The researchers explain,

“During the Tunisian uprising, Twitter may have been a place where users honed a set of practices and established relationships that were then further developed during the Egyptian revolution.”

Many argue that the revolutions would have happened regardless of whether or not Twitter existed. While historically, many revolutions have been successful without the aid of a social networking site, I would argue that Twitter accelerated the progress of the revolutions, allowing people to communicate faster and more efficiently. Many different people, including activists, journalists or organizations played crucial roles in the flow of information and relay important information to the people involved in the revolution. Twitter also provided people who were unable to be at the actual demonstrations and protests to participate, share important information and show their support for the protestors. During the revolutions, I was studying abroad in Scotland. There, I met friends from all over Europe and Asia. I remember going on Twitter and seeing all my friends tweeting about the Egyptian revolution, showing that the entire world was watching and invested in what was going on in Egypt. All of these elements together ultimately resulted in the success of the Tunisian and Egyptian people.

Egyptian Revolution and Twitter. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images.