By Toqa Ezzidin
Social media activists launched several campaigns on Facebook and Twitter to call for a new uprising on 25 January 2016.
A Facebook campaign says it is demonstrating the anger of the youth during the era of current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and calls for “overthrowing tyranny”. Also, several activists on Twitter joined the “Back to Tahrir” hash-tag.
A member of the 6 April Youth Movement Sherif El-Rouby told Daily News Egypt these campaigns and hash-tags are nothing but “hallucinations”, because people do not set dates for revolutions.
“The next anniversary will revive the original uprising which did not achieve its goals, and campaigns on social media help create a crowd, not a revolution,” he added.
According to El-Rouby, if people feel suppressed, they will go to Tahrir Square and call for their rights again, and many parties will be back to the square on the anniversary in all cases.
“People do protest now, but our pro-regime media doesn’t air these protests,” he said.
The launcher of the Facebook campaign, Mahmoud El-Saka, said Al-Sisi’s rule has turned the dreams into “nightmares”, as it suppressed freedom of thought and expression, brought back repression by the police force, and the youth of the 25 January Revolution are now behind bars.
El-Saka also noted the very high wages of judges, the high prices people suffer from, and the obvious “dictatorship” of Al-Sisi, saying he left no place for other parties and the country is now ruled by “one person”.
El-Saka concluded the campaign’s description by calling on the youth to join the protests that will take place on the anniversary of the 25 January uprising, saying that the slogan will be “get out”.
“January will not die no matter how much they try, our victory will be certain if we unite,” he said.
As for the “Back to Tahrir” Twitter hash-tag campaign, it calls on citizens to return to the square on the anniversary of the uprising. Many people expressed their anger through the hash-tag, saying they had wanted to leave Egypt but Tahrir Square gave them another hope.
Activist Solafa Magdy, who joined the hash-tag, said the campaign can be summarised in two words: ”Last Hope.” She added that the main demands will be the release of all the arrested activists and those who were forcibly disappeared.
Magdy also said the promotion of any political entity during the protests will not be allowed, according to media reports.
Despite the increased number of people joining the campaigns, others questioned the objectives, accusing the campaign creators and supporters of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and of being traitors and vandals. Some have also posted several pro-Al-Sisi quotes and photos. However, the creators and supporters of the campaigns denied their affiliation to any political entities.
Another campaign was launched by the 6 April Youth Movement entitled ‘Saybenhalkom’ (We are leaving it to you), in which the movements calls on the revolutionary youth to gather in front of immigration offices and abandon the election queues on 22 November, which marks the start of the second phase of elections.
These symbolic queues in front of embassies seek to express the youth’s rejection of the current situation.
