How do the authors use statistics to support their claim

To show that even though social media use was limited, it was often connected to politics.

Explanation:

The excerpt mentions that the majority  of the population in Egypt doesn't use social media but that people with college education use social media to get political information, so the statistics try to support the argument that the use of social media in Egypt has been connected to politics. This because they were used to let the world know what was happening, even though they are not widely used by the population in the country.

c, his tragic flaw to cause his downfall