Social Media's Role In The Arab Spring

The role of social media in the Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests in the Middle East and North Africa between 2010 and 2012, remains a highly debated subject. Uprisings occurred in states regardless of their levels of Internet usage, with some states with high levels of Internet usage (such as Bahrain, with 88% of its population online in 2011) experiencing uprisings as well as states with low levels of Internet usage (such as Yemen and Libya).

Acknowledging the connection between social media and the Arab Spring

Social media played a significant role in facilitating communication and interaction among participants of political protests. Protesters utilized social media, to organize demonstrations (both pro-governmental and anti-governmental), disseminate information about their activities, and raise local and global awareness of ongoing events. Research from the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, found that online revolutionary styled motivations often preceded mass protests on the ground, and that social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring. In various countries, governments have used social media as a tool to engage with citizens and encourage their participation in governmental processes. Conversely, some administrations have engaged in monitoring internet traffic, restricting access to websites, and in notable cases such as Egypt, entirely discontinuing internet access. These measures were often implemented in an effort to discourage potential unrest. Extensive research into the role of social media during the Arab Spring, has led many scholars to recognize its significant impact in terms of mobilization, empowerment, shaping opinions, and influencing change.

Uneven impact of social media on political processes

Social media's impact has varied results per country. Social networks played an important role in the rapid and relatively peaceful disintegration of at least two regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, where the governing regimes had little or no social base. They also contributed to social and political mobilization in Syria and Bahrain, where the Syrian Electronic Army, a still active Syrian "hacktivist" group, was established in order to target and launch cyber attacks against the political opposition and news websites.

While nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a poll that they used Facebook to organise protests and spread awareness, the role of the social network wasn't central in countries like Syria and Yemen, where there is little Facebook usage. During the Arab Spring the number of users of social networks, especially Facebook, rose dramatically in most Arab countries, particularly in those where political protest took place, except for Libya, which at the time had low Internet access preventing people from doing so.

As previously mentioned, government responses to social media activism varied significantly across countries. While the Tunisian government only blocked certain channels used to coordinate protests, the Egyptian government went further, initially blocking Facebook and Twitter, then cutting off all internet access nationwide by shutting down the four national ISPs and mobile phone networks. However, the Internet blackout in Egypt failed to stop the protests, seeming to fuel them instead. As Zeynep Tufekci explained:

However, because these censorship measures did not prevent the overthrowing of the Egyptian and Tunisian governments, some argue that social media's role in the Arab Spring is overplayed, and that other, more deterministic factors were likely at play.

Origins of the social media movement in Arab nations

In the aftermath of the Tunisian Revolution, young Egyptians spread the call to protest online with the help of a Facebook campaign, "We Are All Khaled Said", organized by the April 6 Youth Movement, Egypt's "largest and most active online human-right activist group". As the call to protest spread, online dissent moved into the offline world. The profile of the most active users of social networks (young, urban, and relatively educated) matches the description of the first anti-government protesters that emerged in the country in January 2011. As such, some analysts have used this to argue that the Arab Spring truly began as a youth revolution meant to "promote a collective identity" and "mobilize people online and offline".

Other instruments of coordination used during the Arab Spring

Social networks were not the only instruments available for internet users to communicate their efforts, with protesters in countries with limited internet access, such as Yemen and Libya, using electronic media devices like cell phones, emails, and video clips (e.g. YouTube) to coordinate and attract international support. In Egypt, and particularly in Cairo, mosques were one of the main platforms to coordinate protests.

Criticism of social media's role in the Arab Spring

According to some experts, the initial excitement over the role of social media in political processes in the countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East has diminished. As Ekaterina Stepanova argues in her study concerning the role of information and communications technologies in the Arab Spring, social networks largely contributed to political and social mobilisation, but didn't play a decisive or independent role in it. Instead, social media acted as a catalyst for revolution, as in the case of Egypt, where the existing gap between the ruling elite and the rest of the population, would eventually have resulted in some kind of unrest.

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Arab Spring and the media
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