Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who administered a key Facebook event organizing Egypt's January 25 protests, has been released in Cairo. Ghonim was detained on January 27 by pro-Mubarak forces who refused to acknowledge his detention, let alone disclose his whereabouts.
Ghonim's release was secured in negotiations over the weekend between newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman and anti-Mubarak organizers. The meeting between Mubarak regime officials and organizers produced a list of "concessions" by the regime effectively echoing Mubarak's last speech, in which he insisted on retaining the presidency until September elections. While Western leaders greeted the meeting as progress toward a new Egyptian government, protesters' core demand -- that Mubarak resign the presidency -- remains unheeded.
The elevation of Ghonim's profile underscores the importance of social media in the Egyptian unrest, as well as the rise of a new generation of Egyptians defiant in the face of economic hardship and human-rights abuses. The value of social media in the hands of Egyptian organizers was not lost on Ghonim. In addition to helping organize the first day of protests via Facebook, Ghonim regularly updated his Twitter feed, where he taunted Malcolm Gladwell, the author of a controversial dismissal of social media as a political tool. In addition to communicating logistical details, such as when to meet where, organizers have deftly employed social media as an escape valve for the frustration that Egyptians have increasingly suffered under the autocratic Mubarak regime. The power of social media was highlighted in the regime's failed attempt to neuter organizers last week by shutting down Internet portals and cell-phone service.
Social media would be no more than an idle tool, however, without digitally savvy organizers. The Egyptian revolt lacks a singular face, due in part to being led by millenials just cutting their teeth in commanding international attention. More familiar figures such as Mohamed ElBaradei and leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood are reportedly taking a back seat to younger organizers in strategic discussions about the protests. Ghonim's detention, and Google's public attempts to gather information about his whereabouts, make him among the first young faces of the Egyptian revolt.
Young organizers' rise to the forefront of protests does not mean that the new generation's opinions will be received warmly by a new government. As veteran Middle East correspondent Thanassis Cambanis recently observed, the vacuum created by Mubarak's departure would fertilize the Egyptian political landscape for a bumper crop of power struggles. These struggles are already occurring behind the scenes, no doubt, and not just among groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Association for Change, but within them. For instance, Cambanis notes that mystery surrounds the Muslim Brotherhood's objectives in a post-Mubarak Egypt not just among outsiders, but among members of the Brotherhood, who are expected to clash among themselves over issues like the the degree of secularism in government and the role of women in public life.
Egyptian youth have performed admirably in fomenting rebellion throughout their country. But their struggle to remove Mubarak will only be half of the battle.
