Facebook: Cracking the Code Page #5

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I was imprisoned in Egypt

on trumped up terrorism charges.

My family used Facebook as

a way of organizing supporters,

and keep them informed.

It became one of the most

vital tools in the campaign

that ultimately

got me out of prison.

The Facebook page became a place

that anybody could find

the latest on our case.

The underlying algorithms

helped push it to people

who might have been interested

in supporting our cause,

even before

they knew it existed.

Peter!

How are you, man?

Good to see you.

- Good to see you, man.

Let's go inside, mate.

It's cold.

Mohamed Soltan was also

arrested for protesting.

He was imprisoned

in the same jail as me.

There was this medium

that people just wanted

to express themselves because

there was no other avenue

in the public space

to express themselves

and then they found

this outlet...

and then they found this outlet

to the outside world as well,

where they would put

how they feel

about social justice issues,

on just day to day inequalities

that they've seen

and then there was

the second phase of that

where they saw that

there's quite a few of them

that feel the same way about

a lot of different things.

It took a prolonged court case,

a 500-day hunger strike

and intense international

pressure to get him released.

For him too, Facebook became

an invaluable tool.

Facebook unlike other platforms

and social media outlets,

it allowed for us

to put out the reports,

the medical reports, it allowed

for us to share my family,

to share stories

and it establishes credibility.

So Facebook provides this place

that is almost ideal

for finding like-minded people,

whether it means finding people

who live in a certain place,

who are interested

in a certain thing

or people who are in the thrall

of a dangerous ideology.

In Australia, Facebook has also

become a powerful political tool

for mainstream causes,

and groups on the fringe.

They don't want

to represent you.

They want to represent the great

global international agenda

that corrupts our people

from the inside,

builds mosques

in our communities

and floods our beautiful country

with third world immigrants.

But is that what we want?

- No!

Blair Cottrell leads a group

called the United

Patriots Front -

a right-wing movement

built on Facebook,

that campaigns against Muslim

and immigrants across Australia.

Facebook's been

extremely effective for us.

That's indispensable

to the development

of our organisation.

Without it, we would probably be

a separatist cult,

where no one would be able

to relate to us,

because no one would actually

hear us directly,

they would only hear about us

through established

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