An Egyptian man has decided to show his appreciation towards Facebook for its role during the revolution in his country by naming his firstborn daughter Facebook. The report comes from the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, translated by TechCrunch:
A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl “Facebook” Jamal Ibrahim (his name.) The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. “Facebook” received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name [Facebook] that shocked the entire world.
Egyptian dictator Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak was in power from 1981 until February 11, 2011, when he resigned after 18 days of protests. Facebook has been credited for helping organize regime-ending protests in the country. Although the Egyptian revolution saw some planning done via Twitter, direct text messages, and other forms of electronic communication, Facebook has come to symbolize all the forms of social media that people used to organize the revolutions in the Middle East.
Out of the 79 million citizens in Egypt (September 2010 estimate), 5 million are on Facebook. The company itself has reported an increase in Egyptian users on its website, with 32,000 Facebook groups and 14,000 pages created in the two weeks after January 25 (the first day of revolutions). A few days ago, the Egyptian army, which is currently running the country after Mubarak was ousted, launched Facebook Page to boost its image.
