Egyptian youths may be returning to the social media-tinged political protests that marked the early days of the Arab Spring. Students and other opposition groups have become increasingly disenchanted with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked president Mohamed Morsi, who has engaged in a series of power grabs and overseen an institutionalization of Islamic law. Earlier this week a Facebook-organized protest took place in front of the presidential palace, the goal being to produce this little bit of Internet memedom:

According to Arabic media reports, Egypt’s security services were present in force.

A similar Harlem Shake effort in Tunisia earlier in the week devolved into a street fight between the university students who were staging the video and local Salafists. Petrol bombs and fisticuffs were involved:

One of the Salafists shouted: “Our brothers in Palestine are being killed by Israelis, and you are dancing.” He said he wanted to explain what behavior Islam considers as “haram” (prohibited) and “halal” (permitted)… Another Salafist, bearded and wearing military gear, was found to be carrying a petrol bomb, but was surrounded by teachers who prevented him from using it… Masters student and organizer Fidaa Jebali later showed an AFP correspondent a red welt on her cheek. “One of the veiled girls called me an apostate before slapping me,” said Jebali from behind huge rose-colored spectacles.

The education minister of Tunisia’s Islamist government has announced that an investigation will be ordered into the creation of the videos, for which students may be expelled and teachers may be sacked.

The role that social media played in the Arab Spring has been heavily debated. Many of those who were initially enthusiastic have ended up backsliding on their predictions, albeit in ways that have not always been totally convincing. It’s difficult to deny that there was an institutional faith at the highest levels of the U.S. foreign policy establishment that Twitter, Facebook, and similar technologies could – quite literally – “change history” for the better in Islamic countries. It’s even more difficult to deny that reality fell short of those expectations.

[Photo: AlMasryAlYoum]