VIDEO: Egypt's Facebook FaceoffPBS: Back in July 2008, Australian television profiled Egypt's young democracy activists and their savvy use of social media. The film included the April 6 Movement's Ahmed Maher and blogger Wael Abbas, both features in FRONTLINE's Revolution in Cairo. Several activists, who just got out of prison, were reluctant to appear on camera; much of the film, reported by Sophie McNeill, was recorded in secret.
One young activist, Belal Diab, recalls how he heckled Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif at a Cairo University event, and made sure his friend used his mobile phone to record and update his protest to YouTube. He had demanded the release of all April 6 Movement detainees. His family told him not to return home that night.
Although Egyptians weren't yet ready to support the young activists back in 2008 because of the regime's brutal crackdown on the April 6 Movement, the young activists never stopped believing that their day would come: 'Our generation believes it is like planting a palm tree,' Diab says about their growing use of online tools. 'We might not eat its dates, but the next generation will.'
