https://doi.org/10.1177/1742766518760085 Global Media and Communication 2018, Vol. 14(1) 141–160 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1742766518760085 journals.sagepub.com/home/gmc Facebook polls as proto-democratic instruments in the Egyptian revolution: The ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ Facebook page Rasha Abdulla The American University in Cairo, Egypt Thomas Poell, Bernhard Rieder, Robbert Woltering and Liesbeth Zack University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract This article examines the dynamics of political participation on the ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ Facebook page, which hosted the call for Egypt’s 25 January 2011 revolution. It shows that the page served as a proto-democratic instrument by introducing both qualitative and quantitative polls and following up with actions based on majority opinion. This argument is developed through an analysis of discussion threads and polls from the page, selected from a data set of 14,072 posts, 6,810,357 comments and 32,030,731 likes made by 1,892,118 users, extracted via a customized version of Netvizz. The analysis demonstrates that the page provided a basic lesson in democratic participation to its users. ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ constituted an unprecedented public space for active discussions on fighting corruption, torture and police brutality. Moreover, it served as a practical example of shared governance and political participation, which became a model for its users to strive to apply to their country. Keywords Egypt, Egyptian revolution, Facebook, Khaled Said, online activism, political participation, public opinion polls, social media, voting practices Corresponding author: Rasha Abdulla, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, The American University in Cairo, JRMC, AUC Avenue, Off Road 90, New Cairo, Cairo 11835, Egypt. Email: rasha@aucegypt.edu 760085GMC 0 0 10.1177/1742766518760085Global Media and CommunicationAbdulla et al. research-article 2018 Article