Syrian Revolution Network

In January 2011, during the Arab Spring and the Egyptian Revolution, Fida al-Sayed, together with his two younger brothers Mustafa and Yasir, created the page "Syrian Revolution" on Facebook.[4] By February, the page gained more than 16,000 followers. It began to call for a "day of rage" in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad, but was initially not able to mobilize protests in Syria.[3]

In an interview on Nyhetsmorgon at TV4, Fida explained that when he started the page before the "revolution," people laughed at him and said that there will never be an uprising in Syria, while others supported the initiative. He pointed several times that it is a peaceful movement for freedom and democracy. He said that they did not have to do any marketing for the page, as the situation in Syria was marketing itself. He said he no longer administrated the page alone, he only founded it, and he now has the help of hundreds of young people in Syria.[5]

On 15 March 2011, around 200 protesters gathered in Damascus to demand reforms and the end to the state of emergency in Syria. The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, then with more than 41,000 followers, called for the protest.[6][7]

On 18 March 2011, the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page called for a "Day of Dignity" in Syria.[8] After Islamic Friday prayers, thousands of protesters gathered in 4 cities, notably in Daraa, and called for freedom and democracy and against corruption. Government forces violently suppressed all of the protests.[9][10]

In April 2011, the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page had more than 120,000 followers. It once again called for Syrians to take to the streets for Friday protests in Syria.[11] By May, the Facebook page, which had more than 180,000 followers,[12] transformed into a wider network with more than 250,000 members in more than 8 social media sites. The Syrian Revolution Network became the most influential Syrian opposition organization, influencing and mobilizing thousands of protesters against the Syrian government.[1]

In July 2011, BBC Arabic showed in a special report how Fida run the page from his apartment in Eskilstuna. Fida explained that 75% of the administrators who ran the site were from within Syria. Fida also told that it is a difficult process before a video is approved and posted on the site: the event must have been filmed and sent by various independent sources, even sometimes needed to be confirmed by filming the date on a local newspaper, or that some of the protesters show big signs where you can clearly see the week's campaign name.[13]

One of the key media activists affiliated with the Syrian Revolution Network is Moaz al-Shami.[2] Moaz al-Shami was from Damascus,[14] and during the first 3 years of the Syrian Civil War, he mainly operated in and around Damascus. Battles of the war he covered in Damascus included the Damascus offensive of November 2012[15] and the Damascus offensive of February 2013,[16] In March 2013, Reuters considered Moaz al-Shami to be one of the leading opposition activists in Damascus.[17]

Some time later in the war, Moaz al-Shami moved to the Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria, where he currently operates. Since September 2015, he covered the Russian military intervention in Syria, including the bombing of Aleppo and Idlib by the Russian Air Force.[18]

On 7 March 2016, while he was covering protests in rebel-held towns in Idlib, Moaz was arrested by al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front, part of the Army of Conquest.[19] On 5 December 2016, he was once again arrested by the Army of Conquest after disputes with an Army of Conquest Sharia judge in Idlib, but was soon released after.[18]

In the beginning of 2017, Moaz al-Shami covered the rise of Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib.[14] On 4 April 2017, he recorded photographs and videos of the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack and its aftermath.[20]