Google Praises Executive’s Role in Egypt Revolt

By JENNA WORTHAM

BARCELONA, Spain — Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, said Tuesday that the company was “very proud” of Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who helped plan the protests that culminated in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

Many Egyptians now consider Mr. Ghonim as one of the unofficial leaders of the anti-Mubarak movement, which rallied protesters by using Facebook and other Internet tools.


Google said little about Mr. Ghonim while he was detained by security services for 12 days during the protests. In an interview with CBS News after his release last week, he said he had not discussed his participation in the protests with Google in advance and would be honored to return to the company “if I’m not fired.”

That prompted a message from the company’s main Twitter account that read: “We’re incredibly proud of you, @Ghonim, & of course will welcome you back when you’re ready.”
Mr. Schmidt said he had talked to Mr. Ghonim and “we’re very, very proud of what he’s done.” He said collaboration tools like Facebook “change the power dynamic between governments and citizens in some very interesting and unpredictable ways.” Mr. Schmidt was responding to a question about the use of technology in political protests after making a speech here at the Mobile World Congress, a major trade show. It was one of the first direct comments from a senior Google executive regarding Mr. Ghonim’s involvement in the antigovernment demonstrations.