Jan 25, 2011-2011
Egypt
Twitter Protest Agaianst Mubarak Regime
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ACTIVISTS/ACT.GROUPS/DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP
Egyptian Citizens
TARGET
Mubarak government
WIDELY HELD BELIEF
Oppressive regimes need to be thrown out.
CASE NARRATIVE
Issue and Opponent: Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for 29 years. After Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali resigned from office on January 14, Egyptians began a protest calling for Mubarak to leave office as well. Egyptians used humor to make fun of Mubarak to accomplish their goals. Protestors named a pile of garbage and toilets “the National Democratic Party Headquarters.” When Vice President Omar Suleiman denounced the protestors’ “foreign agendas” they left plain blank notebooks on the square saying “I left my agenda at home.”
Dilemma Action: Egyptians took to social media to encourage others to join them. It allowed their humor in the streets to be translated online as well. A fake “Installing Freedom” screen grab showed files being copied only to be met with an error message reading “Cannot install Freedom. Please remove Mubarak and try again.” A fake Twitter account titled @HosniMubarak erupted and signaled that the military was no longer satire-proof. When Mubarak was late to a speech, #ReasonsWhyMubarakIsLate was trending on Twitter.
Outcome: Mubarak resigned on February 11, however, strikes and jokes continued in Egypt.
PRIMARY STRUGGLE/GOAL
NONVIOLENT TACTICS USED
DA TACTICS USED
Humorous skits and pranks
CASE NARRATIVE WRITER
SUCCESS METRICS
9 / 12
(CONC) Concessions were made
(EREP) Dilemma action got replicated by other movements
(MC) Media Coverage
(MSYMP) Media coverage was sympathetic to the activists
(PS) Dilemma action built sympathy with the public
(REFR) Dilemma action reframed the narrative of the opponent
(RF) Dilemma action reduced fear and/or apathy among the activists
(SA) Dilemma action appealed to a broad segment of the public
Laugtivism
PART OF A LARGER CAMPAIGN
3 / 3
Activist group continued working together after the action
Encouraged more participants to join the movement
Internally replicated by the same movement
RESOURCES
Project documentation
Dilemma Actions Coding Guidebook
Case study documentation
Dilemma_Actions_Analysis_Dataset
SOURCES
Louie Sussman, Anna. 2011. “Laugh, O Revolution: Humor in the Egyptian Uprising,” The Atlantic. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/laugh-o-revolution-humor-in-the-egyptian-uprising/71530/).
Bichlbaum, Andy. 2020. “Humor to overthrow Mubarak,” Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://actipedia.org/project/humor-overthrow-mubarak).
Friedman, Uri. 2011. “The Egyptian revolution dominated Twitter this year,” Foreign Policy. Retrieved July 23, 2023. (https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/12/05/the-egyptian-revolution-dominated-twitter-this-year/).
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