

Wael Ghonim: The Most Inspiring Googler Who Helped Spark the Egyptian Revolution - emilepetrone
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/subtitled-video-of-wael-ghonims-emotional-tv-interview/

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silverlake
Why does the media keep repeating his employer's name? It has nothing to do
with his activism.

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martythemaniak
Actually it does, in so far as people like him are likely to be very common in
Google compared to other places.

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ajju
I have a lot of respect for Google and perhaps I am just misunderstanding your
point. Are you trying to say "People brave enough to face battalions of armed
police while protesting against a totalitarian regime are very common in
Google"?

I hope that is the case but it would be hard to provide objective proof of
that.

I think there is another, better justification for naming Google in this story
and that is - they risked acting against their self interest by creating the
call-to-tweet tool for the protesters in Egypt. It used to be accepted
practice for corporations to 'stay out' of foreign issues that don't directly
impact them and Google had the cojones to side-step accepted practice in favor
of what is right. Then again, Twitter and Facebook have taken similar actions
in the past.

This is not to minimize the positive contributions these companies made, but
it is not the same as facing armed police at great personal risk.

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fapi1974
Wow - the video shows a very inspiring guy - not because he is particularly
charismatic, but rather because he seems humbled by his role. Clearly feels
that he is playing a small part in a larger movement, and deeply patriotic.

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rooshdi
Incredibly moving ending of Wael weeping as he sees photographs of some of the
killed protesters for the first time. Truly sad and heartbreaking, yet highly
inspirational moment. In the end, one can only hope the Egyptian people
finally find the peace, freedom, and fairness they have been fighting so
diligently for.

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Joakal
I would be interested to know how he failed to keep his anonymity when he
claims he was anonymous yet Egyptian police arrested him.

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ajju
Once he was arrested, I assume it made a lot of sense both for him and his
family/friends to 'out' him(self) as a senior executive at Google. This may
have even saved his life.

This assumes the Egyptian police hadn't already found out his identity from
some other source before or after the arrest.

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gruseom
I haven't yet seen any sign of Google reacting to all this news about him,
positively or negatively. Have they?

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tonfa
The interview? or the fact that he was found
(<http://twitter.com/google/status/34676106900541440>)?

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gruseom
Anything really. Thanks for the link. I'm curious as to whether Google will
express any support (or non-support) for his pro-democracy activities. I can
imagine them going either way on this. Most likely they'll say nothing.

Also, he wasn't, of course, "found". He was released in response to
international attention after having been imprisoned and tortured by a
dictator's thugs. (Being blindfolded for 12 days counts as torture in my
book.)

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hexis
Was it ever established how the Egyptian policed determined that he had
started the Facebook page?

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ajju
From what I understand, he admitted he did.
[http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/08/google-executive-wael-
gho...](http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/08/google-executive-wael-ghonim-
admits-he-was-el-shaheeed.html)

~~~
hexis
I'm asking how the police knew it was him before they grabbed him.

