On Jan. 25, 2011, protests demanding “Bread, Freedom and Social Justice” erupted in Cairo and other major Egyptian cities. Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia that 10 days earlier had succeeded in bringing down the autocratic Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime, the protests in Egypt began as demonstrations but quickly evolved into a full-scale revolt with tens of thousands of anti-government protesters gathering in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand “the downfall of the regime.” When longtime president Hosni Mubarak announced that he was stepping down less than three weeks later, the Tahrir pro-democracy activists erupted into jubilant celebrations that lasted into the early hours.

“We were taken completely by surprise; no one had expected the regime to fall so quickly,” Zeinab Mohamed, a blogger known to her readers as Zeinobia, told Al-Monitor.

Mohamed had fervently tweeted from Tahrir Square about the dramatic events of the popular uprising and has continued to report since on the ensuing turmoil, building up a 226,000-strong following on Twitter.

“I wanted to let the world know what was happening in Egypt at a time when mainstream Egyptian media had failed us by initially ignoring the protests and later by vilifying the Tahrir activists, branding them ‘thugs’ and ‘foreign agents,’” she said.