Alert: AFP - Egyptian Revolutionaries Are Fighting Online Wars Against Gangs Of Mubarak's Trolls

[Turborama]

By Jailan Zayan (AFP) – 1 hour ago

CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak's supporters took their battle against anti-government protesters to cyberspace but their voices were drowned out by an army of tech-savvy activists willing to wage keyboard war.

Anti-regime street protests had for years been stifled by Egypt's powerful security apparatus but, much to everyone's surprise, it only took a few clicks to launch the biggest ever challenge to Mubarak's 30-year presidency. After a groundbreaking uprising in Tunisia last month forced president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee after 23 years in power, Egyptian activists quickly mobilised pro-democracy protests through Facebook pages and Twitter messages.

On Tuesday, the protests were energised by the release of 30-year-old Google marketing executive and formerly anonymous founder of one of the online protest sites, Wael Ghonim, after 12 days in detention. But the educated and technically skilled activists were faced with a brief, yet fierce, challenge by Mubarak supporters.

Facebook pages calling for the protests -- including by the pro-democracy April 6 Movement and Khaled Said Facebook page -- were flooded with angry posts condemning the anti-regime demonstrations. The new wave of pro-regime posts accused the cyber-rebels of being foreign spies, agents or merely unpatriotic.

Full article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gbOx_PCgkBVkTJKfSYlr0wqPujoQ?docId=CNG.7ce7ae644708af2bfddba36e7fd70750.141


Translations in a combination of comments here: http://yfrog.com/h3g76hj

[Turborama]

1. Keek

For the nigh-time crew

:kick:

[leftstreet]

2. Thanks for kicking

I missed this. Very interesting!

[suffragette]

3. K&R