Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s quadrilogy: Blogging, Linux, politics, and prison
“I guess I’m here as an activist, as a foot soldier in a revolution to talk about how tech companies can find ways to maintain and promote and protect and respect the human rights of their users. Now, that’s a topic I’m quite cynical about. Companies are not really likely to do any of that. Corporations are not really likely to do any of that. ”
— From Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s speech at the opening of RightsCon 2011 in California, October 2011.
Since its inception in 2011, RightsCon has become one of the most significant global events uniting human rights activists, techies, policymakers, journalists, researchers, and business leaders to tackle the challenges digital advancements pose to fundamental rights and freedoms. Organized annually by Access Now, a leading organization in digital rights, the conference serves as a space for dialogue among key players in technology and human rights.
The 13th edition of RightsCon took place from 24-27 February in Taipei, Taiwan, gathering thousands of participants from 150 countries. Discussions focused on pressing issues such as artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, content governance, data protection, and the role of technology in crises.
Always present
At this year’s conference, during the opening session, Laila Soueif, the mother of Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abd El-Fattah, addressed participants via a pre-recorded video message. Having been on a hunger strike for over 140 days then, her voice was weary but unwavering.
The professor of mathematics at Cairo University spoke on behalf of thousands of mothers of political prisoners, expressing the weight of loss and the resilience of resistance. She affirmed that her battle was far from over and that the fight for Alaa’s freedom continued.
Soueif began by reminding the audience that Alaa was supposed to be released on September 29, 2024, but authorities failed to set him free. The following day, she started an open-ended hunger strike, vowing not to end it until her son regained his freedom. Despite her deteriorating health after more than four months without food, she described her ability to address the conference as a "miracle."
This would be her last public appearance before being hospitalized in London due to severe health complications.
In her message, she quoted her son’s letter to the same conference in 2017, from which his book "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" takes its title. However, she added that after the war in Gaza, "we all feel defeated, having witnessed genocide and been powerless to stop it."
She concluded her speech with a powerful appeal, "Do not let our defeat become permanent." Her words were not just those of a mother fighting for her son but of a veteran activist aware that her days might be numbered.
Two days later, at the conference’s closing session, researcher and human rights activist Sara Alsherif compared Alaa's arrest to today’s digital silencing, where speaking out against power often leads to swift and deliberate suppression. "The Western based tech companies are trying to shut our voices down, manipulating our feeds to control what we can see and what we cannot, the same as any authoritarian state does. We are ruled by an unelected tech elite made up of billionaires, modelling the same behaviours as the dictatorships,” she explained.
From Linux to prison
Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a prominent advocate for free software and open-source communities in Egypt. In 2004, he co-founded the Egyptian GNU/Linux Users Group/EGLUG, which provided a platform for those interested in free and open-source software. EGLUG members worked to spread knowledge and the principles of openness and collaboration, countering the "all rights reserved" model that benefits large corporations at the expense of knowledge-sharing and creativity.
Through EGLUG, Alaa organized numerous events, such as Linux Installations, which allowed participants to install free Linux operating systems on their devices and explore them. These initiatives helped lower the technical barriers for beginners and deepened Egypt’s engagement with open-source technology.
As blogs proved to be a new medium for political and social expression in Egypt in the mid-2000s, Alaa became a central figure in the movement. Known then as Alaa Seif, he was not only a blogger sharing his thoughts but also a key enabler of the blogging community. His contributions extended beyond writing—he provided technical support to new bloggers and encouraged political activism.
In 2005, when Egyptian blogs were still scarce, Alaa and his then-wife Manal Hassan launched Manalaa.net, an aggregator that automatically displayed links to the latest posts from Egyptian bloggers. The site functioned like an alternative news agency, helping users easily access new content as it emerged.
Additionally, Alaa played a crucial role in helping many bloggers establish their own platforms, often hosting their blogs on his personal server. This support was particularly valuable at a time when technical barriers, such as Arabic language compatibility, posed significant challenges for beginners.
Beyond digital activism, Alaa took to the streets, participating in demonstrations and sit-ins. In March 2006, he joined and promoted the February 30 sit-in at Tahrir Square under the slogan "A Night in the Love of Egypt." During this event, he live-blogged using his mobile phone, a novel practice at the time.
During the same period, security crackdowns on political activists and bloggers intensified. Alaa was arrested in May 2006 while participating in a solidarity sit-in in front of the Judges' Club, which was demanding judicial independence. From prison, he wrote a blog post titled "The Third Fifteen [days in detention]," recounting his experience behind bars. His detention sparked an outpouring of support, with online campaigns and blogging initiatives demanding his release.
Alaa’s activism extended beyond blogging. After the success of Manalaa.net, he contributed to the Katib blogging platform, launched in 2007 by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information/ANHRI. Katib was the first Arabic blog-hosting service based on free software, aiming to promote freedom of expression online.
This project was more than a technical endeavor; it was a step towards enhancing online freedom of expression at a time when Egyptian authorities began tightening their grip on digital content.
In October 2008, Alaa left Egypt for South Africa. In a blog post titled "Season of Migration to the South," he clarified that his decision was not driven by political frustration but by a desire to explore a different environment.
However, this distance was not a complete break from Egyptian reality. He continued to engage in political and rights discussions, supporting digital and political activism from afar.
Alaa was not just a blogger expressing his views; he actively empowered others to find their own voices. Whether by providing the technical infrastructure for blogs or by participating in protests and sit-ins, he remained at the forefront of Egypt’s digital and political activism.
Despite repeated arrests and relentless state repression, Alaa’s name remained synonymous with Egypt’s blogging movement—one he helped shape from inception, transforming it into a formidable force in the country’s political sphere.
When the 2011 revolution erupted, Alaa was still in South Africa. When Egyptian authorities cut off communications, he relayed updates from activists at the Hisham Mubarak Law Center to the outside world. He returned to Egypt shortly before Mubarak stepped down, and after Mubarak's ouster he decided to stay in Egypt and became deeply involved in post-revolution initiatives, such as Tweet Nadwa (seminar) and Let’s Write Our Constitution, which aimed to create a digital space for public discussions on Egypt’s future.
Alaa’s journey has been marked by repeated arrests and state repression. His first imprisonment after his return to Egypt came in 2011 after the Maspero protests, where military forces violently dispersed a predominantly Coptic demonstration, killing 27 and injuring hundreds.
Abdel Fattah faced charges of illegal assembly, inciting violence, and stealing weapons to carry out a terrorist plot. As a civilian, he refused to be interrogated by military prosecutors, citing a conflict of interest, as he believed the military was complicit in the very crime it was investigating.
In 2013, he was arrested again for protesting against Egypt’s anti-demonstration law, receiving a five-year sentence followed by 5 years under parole of strict surveillance upon his release in 2019, where he had to spend 12 hours daily in the police station.
In September 2019, he was rearrested in a mass crackdown, subjected to abuse in Tora Maximum Security Prison, and later sentenced in 2021 to five more years for "spreading false news."
As Alaa Abdel Fattah’s scheduled release in September 2024 neared, Egyptian authorities refused to free him, arguing that his pretrial detention did not count towards his sentence, effectively extending his imprisonment until 2027. This came despite his recent acquisition of British citizenship, which amplified global calls for his release.
In defiance, his mother, Laila Soueif, launched a hunger strike, later joined by international activists and journalists, mounting pressure on the Egyptian government to act.
In 2025, Alaa remains behind bars, while his mother continues her hunger strike. The fight for his freedom is far from over, standing as a testament to Egypt’s deteriorating human rights situation and the enduring struggle for justice.
(*)A version of this article first appeared in Arabic on March 2, 2025