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Social Media Activism and Egyptians' Use of Social Media to Combat Health Promotion International, Vol. 29 No. S1 # The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/heapro/dau046 For Permissions, please email: [email protected] Social media activism and Egyptians’ use of social media to combat sexual violence: an HiAP case study SHEILA PEUCHAUD* Journalism and Mass Communication, American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt *Corresponding author. E-mail [email protected] Downloaded from SUMMARY This paper represents a case study of how social media acti- counsel and social media outlets. The hope is the initiatives vists have harnessed the power of Facebook, Twitter and described in this paper could inspire public health minis- http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ mobile phone networks to address sexual harassment in tries and activist NGOs to incorporate crowdsourcing Egypt. HarassMap plots reports of sexual harassment on a social media applications in the spirit of health in all pol- Google Map and informs victims of support services. icies (HiAP). To that end, this paper will begin by defining Tahrir Bodyguard and Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment social media activism from the perspective of the communi- (OpAntiSH) protect female protestors who have been vul- cations discipline. This paper will then demonstrate the sig- nerable to sexual aggression at the hands of unruly mobs nificance of sexual harassment as a public health issue, and and by agents of the state. Activists have access to an describe several social media efforts to document incidents Android app called ‘I’m Getting Arrested’ or ‘Byt2ebed and protect victims. The paper will conclude with discus- 3alia’ in Egyptian Arabic. The app sends the time and GPS sion regarding how these innovations could be integrated coordinates of an arrest to family, fellow activists, legal into the HiAP approach. by guest on November 10, 2015 Key words: Egypt; sexual violence; women; media PURPOSE AND OUTLINE of sexual harassment as a public health issue in Egypt,and engage in more detailed descriptionsof This paper represents a case study of how social several social media efforts to document inci- media activism is being used to address a signifi- dents and protect victims. The paper will con- cant, high-profile health issue: sexual harassment cludewithspeculationabouthowtheseinnovations in Egypt. The hope is the initiatives described in could be integrated into the HiAP approach. this paper could inspire public health ministries and activist NGOs to incorporate crowdsourcing social media applications in the spirit of health in SOCIAL MEDIA HEALTH ACTIVISM all policies (HiAP). Operating under the assump- tion that most readers are likely to come to this Zoller (Zoller, 2005) observed that, while health topic with a health policy background, this paper activists in the USA have achieved significant emphasizes social media activism as it is under- social and policy changes, ranging from the adop- stood in the scholarly discipline of mass communi- tion of Medicare legislation in 1965 to the sea cations. A few social media-based health initiatives change of public attitudes and regulation regard- from around the world will be surveyed very ing second-hand smoke in recent years, ‘health briefly in order to evoke the broad range of health activism’ remains an uncommon umbrella term. issuesthat may be addressed through social media. She argues that health activism should rightfully This paper will then demonstrate the significance be examined as an important form of health i113 i114 S. Peuchaud communication, by employing a critical lens that have also been derided as vehicles for ‘slackti- focuses on issues of power, conflict, inequality and vism’ or ‘clicktivism.’ According to Gladwell social determinants of health. Unlike health advo- (Gladwell, 2010) faith in social media activism cacy, which typically aims to educate individuals runs the risk of replacing the hard, dangerous real- to work within the status quo, health activism word work of boycotts, protests and feet-on-the- aims to disrupt the status quo, and is therefore pavement organizing with virtual clicking, liking resistance based rather than education based. and sharing. However, the fact that relatively un- Health activists may coalesce into Health involved and uninterested individuals may in fact Social Movements (HSMs), which Brown and assuage their weaker sense of civic obligation Zavestoski (Brown and Zavestoski, 2004)define through social media sharing does not preclude as ‘collective challenges to medical policy, public activists from using the same tool effectively. health policy and politics, belief systems, research Social media activism is effective when it is used and practice which include an array of formal and as a tool to coordinate real-world action rather informal organizations, supporters, networks of than as a replacement for it (Shirky, 2011). For co- operation and media’. HSMs affect society by example, in 2008, South Korean teenagers used demanding changes in health-care delivery, social social media to launch and sustain the Downloaded from policy and regulation; by insisting on alternative ‘Candlelight Protests’ against the resumption of hypotheses and methodologies in medical beef imports from the USA, without sufficient research and by pushing to democratize the insti- Mad Cow screen procedures (Ok, 2011). tutions and interests that drive policy priorities. Furthermore, especially when the disruptive The first decade of the 21st century has wit- potential of activism is most potent, such as in the http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ nessed a rapid expansion of information chan- context of an authoritarian regime, digital activ- nels, from satellite television, to blogs, to social ism carries real risk and enormous potential. By media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and the getting word out to a very large networked popu- improved technological capacity of low-cost lation, social media can help activists attract large mobile phones. Social media applications, such crowds to a protest, for example, right from the as Facebook, Twitter and even text messaging beginning. As Tufecki and Wilson (Tufecki and services, have the ability to amplify the effective- Wilson, 2012) demonstrate, most of the Egyptians ness of health activism, building the ranks of acti- who attended the first day of the 25 January 2011 vists, document the need for social change and protests against the Mubarak regime found out organize for real-world action. Howard and about the protest through social media. by guest on November 10, 2015 Parks (Howard and Parks, 2012) offer a usefully Participation on the first day is a crucial indicator. broad definition of social media as consisting of Under an autocracy, the riskiest kind of dissent is ‘(a) the information infrastructure and tools used that which fails and the most dangerous protest is to produce and distribute content that has indi- one that is small. Smaller protests have a higher vidual value but reflects shared values; (b) the likelihood of being effectively censored, isolated, or content that takes the digital form of personal repressed in authoritarian regimes. A slow build-up messages, news, ideas, that becomes cultural pro- in attendance is more plausible in democratic soci- ducts and (c) the people, organizations, and in- eties where small initial protests are less likely to be repressed. Thus, in authoritarian regimes, high par- dustries that produce and consume both the tools ticipation on the first day is often necessary to initi- and the content’. ate the larger cascade that ultimately results in the Digital and social media have had a positive uprising’s success. impact on the ability of HSMs to challenge powerful stakeholders and influence policy. Scientific knowledge is readily available in online CROWDSOURCING HEALTH SOLUTIONS via medical databases, research studies and news coverage. Online support and self-help groups Another way social media can be used to amplify have emerged online around a multitude of dis- health activism is through ‘citizen journalism’ or eases, conditions and concerns. These groups ‘crowdsourcing.’ Tufecki and Wilson documented share information and can serve as springboards that almost half (48.2%) of the 1200 respondents to collective action to address or redress systemic they surveyed who had participated in the 18-day inequities or culpability. rising against the Mubarak regime had used their As social media have been lionized as the mobile phones to produce and disseminate the hammer that has toppled repressive regimes, they events over Facebook and Twitter. In many cases, Scholarly depth on social media activism and health i115 traditional media outlets picked up and rebroad- (44%) or angry (35.9%), confused (9.4%) or cast these reports, thereby deepening the level of blamed themselves (7.8%) after the incident. detail and the breadth of their coverage. They say sexual harassment happens frequently in Just as traditional media outlets can benefit all public spaces, such as parks, public transporta- from ‘citizen journalists’, health policy can benefit tion and shopping malls, as well as via mobile from real-time, localized data obtained directly phones. The most common form of harassment from large, dispersed populations through sens- reported was whistling or verbal catcalling ible use of mobile communication technologies. (87.7%), but 62% reported stalking and 59.5% The open-source Ushahidi platform is a crowd- reported being touched by their harassers.
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