Protests have been raging in Egypt for 20 days now, with an uprising against the country’s government well under way. But we’re not a political website and it’s something that’s far from our area of expertise. What we do know a lot about is social networking. So imagine our amusement/bewilderment when we discovered that amidst all this madness a baby was born and given the name – “Facebook”.
The social network was used to rally protestors after a man named Khaled Said was brutally killed by police in plain sight of the public. Said is one of a number of Egyptians killed by those employ to protect them since the protests began and shockingly the police man receive no punishment for his actions whatsoever. So a page was started on the popular Facebook, by a Google Exec named Wael Ghonim, in fact.
The page he created is called “We Are Khaled Said” and it currently commands 165,265 followers – and through the power of the internet has gathered them all together in the massive protests recently seen across the country over the past three weeks.
It’s not unusual for children born during these revolutionary times to be named after the influential leaders who bring about change. But so influential is the social network in the fight against government oppression and police violence that one man, Gamal Ibrahim, has named his new born daughter “Facebook”.
The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram read: “The girl’s family, friends and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook.’Facebook’ received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name.”
Facebook and friendly site Twitter were also used to rally protestors during campaigns across Egypt back in January. But we’re yet to hear of any babies named “Twitter”.
Where our social sites can inspire revolution, on the darker flip side it can cause quite the opposite and popular buddy sites were criticised earlier this year for allowing the organisation of the British riots witnessed in August 2011.
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