Vodafone Scorned After Claiming Egypt’s Revolution
Remember when a global telecommunications company helped inspire this year's Egyptian revolution? Neither do scores of anti-Mubarak activists who are furious over Vodafone's attempt to capitalize on the country's revolutionary spirit with a promotional video claiming just that, even after the company went along with the regime's orders to block telephone and Internet service during the protests (more).
Remember when a global telecommunications company helped inspire this year’s Egyptian revolution? Neither do scores of anti-Mubarak activists who are furious over Vodafone’s attempt to capitalize on the country’s revolutionary spirit with a promotional video claiming just that, even after the company went along with the regime’s orders to block telephone and Internet service during the protests.
Apologists for Vodafone may ask what choice its directors had when state officials demanded the suppression of Egypt’s communication systems, when the failure to do so might have meant imprisonment or even death. This justification well might be met with the question of what decision the estimated 135 protesters who lost their lives in the uprising made when faced with a similar, no less terrifying moral crisis. –ARK
Your support matters…The Guardian:
The short film features screengrabs of Facebook and Twitter messages posted by Egyptians approving of the Vodafone ad campaign, then an audio recording of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation as president being announced on TV.
In fact, many pro-change activists blame Vodafone and other mobile phone companies for following Egyptian government orders and implementing a communications blackout at the height of the revolution. They have condemned the advert as a “sickening” attempt to push up sales by “riding the revolutionary bandwagon”, and an insult to the hundreds who died in the struggle to bring down Mubarak.
“Apparently this tagline inspired people to take the streets,” said prominent blogger Mohamed El-Dahshan in one of many angry and satirical responses that have spread across the web. “I mean, never mind the years of activism, the protests, the decades of cumulated grievances, the terrible economic situation, the trampled political freedoms, the police brutality, the torture, etc. Nah – we just watched a Vodafone ad, and thought: ‘Hey! We’re powerful! Let’s topple the president!'”
Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
His 30-year reign in unstable region came to an end in 2011 Arab Spring revolt, which has been followed by years of chaos and uncertainty.
Mass protests have reshaped Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria and Sudan, but you'd never know it from the coverage they've received in U.S. media.
Bodies irreversibly broken by global conflicts serve as an ongoing testament to war’s long legacy of destruction.
The U.S. has aligned itself with some of the worst actors in the Middle East. We'll be living with the consequences for years to come.
Not that Americans are paying attention, but there are important lessons to heed from the collapse of democracy in Egypt.
Hollywood's triumph in the global culture wars is worrisome at a time when conglomerates reign, French scholar Violaine Roussel argues.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.