project freedom: social media's role in the release of tarek shalaby from military prison

Project Freedom:

Getting Tarek Shalaby out of

Military Prison using Social Media

as a catalyst

Presentation Agenda

The Back Story:

• Who the hell is Tarek Shalaby?

• Why the hell was he in Jail?

The Campaign to get Shalaby out of Prison:

• Strategy

• Vehicles

• Results

• Takeaways

The Back Story

Who the hell is Tarek

Shalaby?

- Tarek Shalaby is a Political Activist / Citizen

Journalist who participated in the 18 day sit in that

led to the toppling of Egyptian Dictator Hosni

Mubarak

- In his spare time he is Creative Director / Partner @

planet360

- He often speaks out about issues related to the

Israeli occupation of Palestine

- He is serious, passionate and dedicated to helping

liberate Egypt

Sometimes…

Why the hell was he in

Military Prison?

- Shortly after the toppling of Dictator Hosni Mubarak

Palestine was slated to undertake its “3rd “Intifada”

- Thousands of Egyptians had planned to mark the

occasion and show their support by heading out to

the Egyptian – Palestinian borders as a show of

support and solidarity

- Buses were rented to drive everyone out to the

borders and a meeting point; Tahrir square was

chosen

- However the Military Rulers of the “New Egypt”

which is still very much like “Old Egypt” had other

plans……

They banned all private and

public transportation from

heading to the borders

And actually blocked all the

roads heading towards Sinai

Several people attempted

to go anyway….

Including Tarek Shalaby

And wound up…

Nowhere

For those a bit more

practical; including myself

We organized a

demonstration in front of the

Israeli Embassy in Cairo

Shalaby fed up with the army

and his trip to the middle of

nowhere

Arrived at the demonstration

as the demonstration was

decreasing in numbers

And the Israeli, sorry Egyptian Army

was increasing

At 4am on that fateful night I

received the following text

message from a mutual friend….

“I can’t reach Shalaby and

looking at his tweets I think

he’s been arrested”

I got up in a state of panic and

looked at his twitter timeline clearly

describing an ambush by the army

and his subsequent arrest

“I can’t reach Shalaby and

looking at his tweets I think

he’s been arrested”

As well as watched a video he took and

uploaded from his cellphone of his arrest

And started a little campaign….

The Campaign

Step One – Get All the Details

I contacted an eye-witness and got the exact story

and then cross-checked it with his twitter timeline

Step Two – Spread the Info

I then wrote up a quick blog post detailing everything that happened and tweeted out the link as

well as giving out my cell phone number inviting anyone with information to contact me

Blog Post Snapshot: 4,000 Hits / One Day

Step Two – Spread the Info

As we visited military prison and pressed the army

for more information I continued tweeting all vital

information received to keep people in the loop

Step Two – Spread the Info

Furthermore many media outlets including Huffington Post, Al Jazeera & NY Times viewed the blog post and started spreading the story to a wider

audience than I could ever reach on my own

Step Three – Keep the Pressure

Along with several close friends we then started a

Facebook page calling for the immediate release of

Tarek Shalaby and started a hashtag #FreeShalaby

Step Three – Keep the Pressure

We called for a demonstration which was posted on the

facebook page as well as in many blogs (including

mine)stating the specific rules of the demonstration & the

inviting all Egyptians as well as members of the press

My blog post giving specific details and

instructions as related to the demonstration

The demonstration filled the square and tens of

media outlets covered the protest

Step Four – Tie into a Wider Cause

In Parallel with Step Three we actually tied in the cause of getting Tarek Shalaby out of jail; which may be relevant

to those that know him to a greater concern of Egyptians; Military trials for civilians which led to tremendous support and interest from a wide base of Egyptians

Step Five – Breakthrough

We finally started getting concrete information on

Shalaby’s trial date and after continued pressing

Shalaby along with over 100 prisoners were set free

In 4 Days…..

Takeaways - Speed

Getting the information out there in a short period of time is essential; the news cycle; particularly in

Egypt is rapid and yesterday’s news is… yesterday’s news

Takeaways - Persistence

Continual pushing of updates and information with regards to the cause is essential to keep people

interested and in the loop; Social Media (particularly twitter) is vital

Takeaways – Attention Span

Working really hard in terms of mobilizing people with regards to the cause quickly is essential

because if this isn’t achieved quickly people will move onto something else

Takeaways – Social Media the Mobilizer

In our case Social Media was the catalyst in terms of

getting the information out there however without

constant on the ground pressure nothing is achieved

The next day Shalaby was back to

demonstrating….

After a little fun