Banned: How Facebook harms free speech in Egypt

Seven years after it helped launch the uprisings that led to the downfall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, Facebook is shutting down Egyptian activism online, Middle East Eye can reveal.

The social media platform was lauded as a critical factor behind the uprisings – or “The Facebook Revolution” – which began on 25 January 2011 and drew tens of thousands of Egyptians onto the streets, changing their country’s trajectory.

But Egyptian opposition activists of all political shades and stripes told MEE that during the past year, the company has repeatedly banned their pages and shut down their livestreams after trolls repeatedly reported their posts.

 

Read the whole story from Middle East Eye.

Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.