Social Media and the Decision to Participate in Political Protest: Observations From Tahrir Square
2012/03/06 by Zeynep Tufekci, Zeynep Tüfekçi, Christopher Wilson · 1,538 citations
Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Communication #Computer science #Conversation #Face (sociological concept) #HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk #Interpersonal communication #Law #Logistic regression #Media studies #Odds #Phone #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Public relations #Respondent #Social Media and Politics #Social media #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01629.x
published in Journal of Communication 62(2), 363-379 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2012/03/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract
Based on a survey of participants in Egypt's Tahrir Square protests, we demonstrate that social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success. We demonstrate that people learned about the protests primarily through interpersonal communication using Facebook, phone contact, or face-to-face conversation. Controlling for other factors, social media use greatly increased the odds that a respondent attended protests on the first day. Half of those surveyed produced and disseminated visuals from the demonstrations, mainly through Facebook.
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