The pivotal role of Twitter in the people’s revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 is well documented. Young people embraced the immediacy and freedom of the new social networking system to escape the constraints of censorship and the security apparatus, to organize and communicate.

 

The vital part that Twitter played in bringing down these autocratic regimes is already widely studied. But it has rather obscured the explosion in its use across the rest of Africa.

 

Twitter is, by no means, the particular tool of political activists in North Africa. It has been adopted enthusiastically by young people right across the continent who are adapting it for their far more varied daily needs.

 

This is why CRCM uses several Twitter accounts and our analysts check Twitter first thing in the morning to see if there's a storm brewing somewhere that might affect our coverage.