Social Media and Pressure Groups

Autocratic Government violates the rights of the citizens to participate in governance. It uses the instrument of the state such as the Police, SSS, DSS, Army to muzzle the media, clamp down on oppositions and violates the fundamental rights of citizens like freedom of association. Change in government comes to being when ethnic or group sentiment is kept aside and collective goal is pursue. The book "Social Media and Pressure Groups Politics during the 2011 Uprising in Egypt" focuses on the capacity of social media to galvanize dissent groups in Egypt to fight autocratic government. It outlines phases of revolutions that have occurred in Egypt and instrument adopted to fight the government. The era of social media changed the method of confronting an autocratic government. Pressure groups such as Muslim Brotherhood, Kefaya, April 6, We Are All Khaled Said (WAAKS) utilized the efficiency of social media to boycott media censorship and report issues of human rights violations. The paradigm shift open up political space of Egypt and attracted sympathizers outside Egypt which energized the streets protest and demonstration that brought down Hosni Mubarak's Autocratic Regime.