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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN YOUNG PEOPLE AND POLITICS SERIES EDITORS: JAMES SLOAM · CONSTANCE FLANAGAN · BRONWYN HAYWARD Leading Protests in the Digital Age Youth Activism in Egypt and Syria Billur Aslan Ozgul Palgrave Studies in Young People and Politics Series Editors James Sloam Department of Politics and International Relations Royal Holloway, University of London Egham, UK Constance Flanagan School of Human Ecology University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI, USA Bronwyn Hayward School of Social and Political Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand Over the past few decades, many democracies have experienced low or falling voter turnout and a sharp decline in the members of mainstream political parties. These trends are most striking amongst young people, who have become alienated from mainstream electoral politics in many countries across the world. Young people are today faced by a particularly tough environment. From worsening levels of child poverty, to large increases in youth unemployment, to cuts in youth services and education budgets, public policy responses to the financial crisis have placed a disproportionate burden on the young. This book series will provide an in-depth investigation of the changing nature of youth civic and political engagement. We particularly welcome contributions looking at: • Youth political participation: for example, voting, demonstrations, and consumer politics • The engagement of young people in civic and political institutions, such as political parties, NGOs and new social movements • The influence of technology, the news media and social media on young people’s politics • How democratic innovations, such as social institutions, electoral reform, civic education, can rejuvenate democracy • The civic and political development of young people during their transition from childhood to adulthood (political socialisation) • Young people’s diverse civic and political identities, as defined by issues of gender, class and ethnicity • Key themes in public policy affecting younger citizens—e.g. youth (un)employment and education • Cross-cutting themes such as intergenerational inequality, social mobility, and participation in policy-making—e.g. school councils, youth parliaments and youth wings of political parties The series will incorporate a mixture of pivot publications (25,000–50,000 words), full-length monographs and edited volumes that will analyse these issues within individual countries, comparatively, and/ or through the lenses of different case studies. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15478 Billur Aslan Ozgul Leading Protests in the Digital Age Youth Activism in Egypt and Syria Billur Aslan Ozgul Department of Social and Political Sciences Brunel University London London, UK Palgrave Studies in Young People and Politics ISBN 978-3-030-25449-0 ISBN 978-3-030-25450-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25450-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Joel Carillet/Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Ahmet, thanks for making this journey even more memorable A cknowledgements This book has benefited from the valuable ideas and advice of many people. First of all, I would like to thank my Egyptian and Syrian inter- viewees, who spent hours answering my questions and shared with me their experiences, hopes and sorrows. I owe a special debt of thanks to Abdelrahman Ayyash, Abed Al Sarraj, Amer Omar, Bilal Zaiter, Caroline Ayyoub, Islam Talaat, Iyas Kaadouni, Radamis Hany Zaky, Sherif Azer and Sherif Alaa for their contributions and for introducing me to many great revolutionaries. This manuscript would not have been possible without them. I would also add that the support of Mina Hany, his guidance in Cairo and his translations were of crucial importance for the preparation of this manuscript. In the summer of 2013, I spent hours at the Syrian National Coalition Media office’s employees, listening to their protest experiences in different parts of Syria; I warmly thank them for allowing me to visit their offices and conduct interviews with them. In addition, I am tremendously grateful for the time of Abdelrahman Mansour, Ahmed Samih, Enrico Angelis, Esraa Abdel Fattah, Mahmoud Masri (pseudonym), Wael Abbas and Wael Eskandar. This book greatly benefitted from the recounting of their experiences and knowledge. I would also like to thank the editorial team at Palgrave Macmillan, and Ambra Finotello and Anne-Kathrin Birchley-Brun, who have been very supportive in the writing stage and patiently answered my questions. I am also most grateful to James Sloam for his encouragement, support and valuable advice on my draft chapters. vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I began this study when I was a Ph.D. candidate at the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway, University of London, and continued at the Centre of Media and Politics at Bournemouth University. Both institutions provided me with many opportunities to conduct the study, for which I am tremendously grateful. There are also many colleagues who were inspiring and substantially supported this study with their intellectual assistance. I owe a special thanks to Ben O’Loughlin, who has always been an inspiration for me. His valuable advice, support and enthusiasm enabled this manuscript to be drafted and progress to its best potential. I also very much appreciate the useful feedback and constructive criticism of Juan Cole, Cristian Vaccari, Andrew Chadwick and Oliver Heath; their theoretical and meth- odological advice greatly improved this book. At the beginning of this research, Alister Miskimmon created an incredible opportunity for me by introducing the DGAP conference that took place in Cairo, and this is where I first met with Egyptian activists, which was a turning point in my life and for which I am extremely grateful. I am also very fortunate to have been surrounded by excellent research mentors, particularly Dan Jackson and Darren Lilleker, who contributed much my thinking while this book was being written. I gratefully acknowledge that some of the materials presented in Chapters 5 and 6 appear in Aslan (2015). The Mobilisation Process of Syria’s Activists: The Symbiotic Relationship Between the Use of Information and Communication Technologies and the Political Culture, International Journal of Communication 9(19): 2507–2525. The manuscript has also been greatly embellished from the proofreading of Christopher Wood. I very much appreciate his assistance and friendship. None of this would have been possible without the support of my family. I would like to thank my mother, Neslihan, who has always encouraged me to follow my dreams and taught me to challenge all types of gender stereotypes. To my father, Suleyman, who is the main source of my interest in politics and political participation, to my brother, Metin, for always comforting me with his presence, and to my grand- parents whom I love dearly. Finally, I dedicate this book to my husband, Ahmet, who sustained me while conducting this research and writing the manuscript over seven years. I am thankful for his love, encouragement, support and assistance. P L P rAise for eading rotests d a in the igitaL ge “This book provides a much-needed intervention into the study of protests and digital technology in the Middle East. Through an empirically rich analysis, the author highlights how events in Egypt and Syria can only be understood by analysing the intersections of organisational struc- tures, resources, and technology. This is essential reading for anyone interested in Egypt, Syria, or protests in the digital age.” —Rhys Crilley, The Open University, UK ix c ontents 1 Introduction 1 2 Egypt and Syria: Similarities and Differences Between Two Countries 21 3 Three Styles of Leadership in the Egyptian Protests 67 4 Resource Mobilisation Strategies Retested 93 5 Breaking the Silence: The Efforts of Syrian Activists to Organise and Mobilise Digitally Supported Protests 133 6 How the Peaceful Protests Turned into Armed Struggles in Syria 153 7 A Comparison of Leaders’ Capabilities and Their Resources 193 8 Conclusion 221 Index 241 xi