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Long Shadow

The Facebook Revolution

Long Shadow

Long Lead & PRX

Technology, Politics, Guns, Internet, Anniversary, 9-11, Terrorism, America, Narrative, History

4.81.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Egypt, a ragtag group of young activists uses social media to spark a revolution and remove a dictator from power. They credit Facebook with the fall of the regime… until the platform is turned against them.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is long lead.

0:05.3

We're supposed to learn from our own mistakes that other people's errors can be instructive too.

0:10.9

From efforts to control the weather that went disastrously awry,

0:14.8

to the untimely death of the Segway boss,

0:17.4

history is a treasure trobe of mishaps and meltdowns that can teach us all. I'm Tim

0:22.7

Harford, host of Cautionary Tales, the podcast that minds the greatest fiascos of the past for

0:29.2

their most valuable lessons. Listen to Cautionary Tales wherever you get your podcasts.

0:40.6

I... wherever you get your podcasts. I truly admired the courage and idealism of these kids, of these activists.

0:49.5

I was so inspired by their bravery and their vision for their country, but I never thought

0:55.0

they would topple the government, that they would change the world.

1:00.6

And then they did.

1:06.2

In the summer of 2008, journalist David Woolman traveled to Egypt to report a story about a group of activists known as the April 6 youth movement.

1:19.2

These young people had just started making international headlines for using Facebook.

1:24.3

But unlike everyone else at that time, they weren't using it to post wedding photos or

1:29.2

plan a barbecue. They were using it to organize and rebel against the oppressive regime

1:34.9

of Hosti Mubarak, Egypt's president.

1:41.4

We made a plan that I would shadow them during an attempted protest gathering on the beach in Alexandria.

1:49.0

So we gathered on the beach, it was sweltering.

1:53.0

The group wanted to hand out some pamphlets.

1:56.0

They wanted to fly a kite painted like the Egyptian flag.

2:00.0

And they wanted to get people talking about democracy

2:03.1

and corruption and human rights.

...

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