SEATTLE -- Philip Howard peers at the YouTube videos on his computer posted by protestors in Egypt. The associate professor in the UW School of Communication specializes in social media and their effect on politics. He calls what's happening in Egypt and Tunisia "significant" in that there is no single leader or organization.
"It's not the Muslim Brotherhood calling for large scale protests," he says. "These are average Egyptians coming out to the street activated by mobile phones, SMS messaging and Facebook posts."
Instead of propaganda, the messages shared on social media he says are personal stories of oppression. "What actually gets someone to go onto the street to face teargas or rubber bullets is not a piece of propaganda, but it's a picture of a mother or daughter, brother or father, who's been beaten by the police."
And in a matter of seconds, those images can be transmitted down the street or around the world. "Somebody takes an image of protestors moving down the street with a mobile phone, uploads it in a few minutes for Egyptians overseas to see, for Egyptians in other parts of Cairo to see, that helps bring people out," Howard says.
Howard says protestors also trust the people on social media because they are often someone they know. He says the practice has a "cascading effect," meaning it's bound to move to other areas of the world.
Howard's new book The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy --Informational Technology and Political Islam is published by Oxford University Press.
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