A blog is a distinctly individual and personal undertaking, yet is explicitly addressed to an anonymous and indefinite public, is published where anyone can access it, and is situated within a matrix of other blogs and websites connected to each other through a network of hyperlinks—hence the name “blogosphere.” Here I ask the following: to what extent does the blogosphere function as a public sphere—a space for democratic deliberation and political participation— in states that lack other democratic institutions (e.g. free and fair elections, an unrestricted press, parliamentary checks on executive power, etc.)? I argue that the blogosphere escapes many of the downfalls of the mass media model (most notably criticized by Habermas), but drawing on alternative conceptions of the public sphere, I point to functions the blogosphere performs which are overlooked by the Habermasian model of rational-critical deliberation. This paper aims to assess both what individuals are doing through the act of blogging as well as the political significance of the blogosphere qua public sphere, which requires a close analysis of the medium itself (in structure and practice) and how it operates in a particular political context. First I address the following set of questions drawing on the public sphere and blogging literatures: What are the special features that characterize the “publicity” of the blogosphere in comparison with other public spheres (for instance those based on oral communication) and how does the technology of the blogosphere change the notion and scope of the “public”? What kinds of subjectivities are enacted and produced through the blogosphere and how are identities articulated and performed? Here I consider both the overall structure and content of the Egyptian blogosphere through a discourse analysis of a small sample of blogs. I interpret blogging as a performative practice —that is, as the site of specific enunciations that both help constitute an identity category and situate the blogger within (or outside of) that category. Second, I explore the ways in which the blogosphere may undermine and shore up authoritarian rule through the case of Egypt. I analyze the meaning and consequences of the practice within the Egyptian political context, considering how blogging developed in the country, how it is being used, and how the state has responded. Finally, by taking a quotidian practice such as blogging as the object of investigation, I seek to problematize dichotomous understandings of “democracy” and “authoritarian” as categories of analysis.