Wael Ghonim: “This was revolution 2.0″ #CNN Interview with the man behind the revolution

Google’s marketing Chief for the Middle East and North Africa, Wael Ghonim, who has quickly become the face of the Egyptian revolution recently had a series of interviews with CNN.

In one of the interviews, he gave an emotional account of how he knew from the day that Ben Ali left Tunisia that Hosni Mubarak was going to leave Egypt. In addition he stressed his belief in the power of the internet, calling the Egyptian revolution “revolution 2.0.”

He mentioned that the revolution was planned/deliberate and that a concerted effort was made to target poor areas. He also noted that he would love to meet Mark Zuckerberg to thank him for the influence Facebook had.

In his words:

This revolution started online…this revolution started on Facebook. This revolution started in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content. We would post a video on Facebook and it will be shared by 50,000 people on their walls within a few hours. I always said that if you want to liberate a society, just give them the internet. The reason why is because the internet helps you fight the media war which is basically the war that the Egyptian regime played very well in 1970s and 1980s and 1990s.

In addition, despite accounts from some political analysts who have recently argued that Egyptians might actually be worse off given that Mubarak handed over to the military council, Wael insists that he believes that Egypt will become a democratic state.

Wael indicated that he plans to write a book soon called Revolution 2.0 where he plans to highlight the role of social media in the revolution.

Watch the CNN video interviews with him below and share with your network!

The face of Egypt’s revolution

Welcome to revolution 2.0

Ghonim: Facebook to thank for freedom

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