Wael Ghonim is an Egyptian internet activist and computer engineer. During the Arab Spring, he was head of marketing for Google Middle East and North Africa. Ghonim was secretly detained in January 2011 by Egyptian security forces for creating “We are all Khaled Saeed," an anti-police brutality Facebook page dedicated to raising awareness of Saeed’s murder at the hands of the Egyptian government. Ghonim was able to widely popularize the page and use it to inspire the Tahrir Square protests that began on January 25. He has been hailed as a hero for helping foment the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, an uprising he attributes to the use of social media.

About

Wael Ghonim emerged as a symbolic leader of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Hailed as a hero for his role in fighting the regime through social media, Ghonim was especially angered by the killing of Khaled Saeed, a 28-year-old Internet activist, who was beaten to death after trying to expose police corruption. In response,Ghonim created the Facebook page “We are all Khaled Saeed" as an open space for posting information about Egyptian police brutality. Ghonim was able to quickly turn the page into one of Egypt’s largest activist sites. Soon hundreds, and then thousands of others, began sharing photos and video of abuse and mistreatment. Within months, it became Egypt’s largest dissident platform of interactive dialogue. The number of followers on Facebook grew to 500,000, establishing it as the primary aggregator to coordinate locations and dates of successive protests.

To run the page, Ghonim assumed the pseudonym El Shaheed – The Martyr – in order to simultaneously protect himself and commemorate Saeed. Even after taking this precaution, Ghonim disappeared three days after the protests began in Tahrir Square. Friends and family feared he had been kidnapped or even killed. Egyptian authorities had arrested him and he remained incarcerated for eleven days. In an appearance on 60 Minutes, when asked if he was beaten, Ghonim replied, “Yes, but it was not systematic. It was individual based and it was not from the officers – it was actually from the soldiers. And I forgive them, I have to say. They were convinced that I was harming the country…when he hits me, he doesn’t hit me because he’s a bad guy. He’s hitting me because he thinks he’s a good guy. On the last day I removed my blindfold and I said ‘Hi’ and kissed every one of the soldiers. I was sending them a message." Ghonimattributes the unfolding success of the Egyptian revolution to the use of social media, including Twitter, instant messenger, and Facebook.