How Facebook is at the heart of a communications revolution

A news story last week struck me as providing proof of how far Facebook has been at the forefront of the global revolution in how we communicate. The prosecutor general in Eygpt announced on his department’s Facebook page that former president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons would be detained for 15 days for questioning over corruption in the former regime. Apparently the Facebook page was set up to promote communication between the new government and families of the people killed or injured during the political turmoil which led up to the ousting of Mubarak. Much has been written about how social media like Facebook and Twitter have been used by protesters to organise the movements for political change which have swept through the Middle East in recent months. Now in Egypt the authorities are using Facebook to communicate directly with people.