One year ago today, tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to protest the government of Hosni Mubarak. After eighteen days of demonstrations and clashes, Mubarak stepped down. The Egyptian uprising, symbolized in part by the hashtag #Jan25, became a source of inspiration for protests across North Africa and the Middle East.
While many have debated the role social media played in facilitating the protests, there is little question that networks like Twitter created a window through which the rest of the world could watch a revolution unfold in real time.
Today, as Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square one year later, we look again to Twitter for reflections on the importance of #Jan25 and the future of the uprising. Some used #Jan25 to remember the events of that fateful day last year. Others tweeted about the present.
While Mubarak’s exit and the formation of a democratically-elected parliament were a cause for celebration for many Egyptians, today’s tweets reveal there’s still much more work to be done.
Photo by Amir Makar