Social media and the Arab Spring

The role played by social media during the Arab Spring as a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both non-violent and violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab world represents a highly controversial issue. The impact of social media on the events in the Middle East and North Africa as a factor of political uprising and turmoil is highly debatable and fostered both criticism and approval.^[1] Protests took place both in states with a very high level of Internet usage (such as Bahrain with 88% of its population online in 2011) and in states with one of the lowest Internet penetration (Yemen and Libya).^[2]

Acknowledgement of the role of social media during the Arab Spring

According to some experts, social media played a significant role during the Arab Spring. From this perspective, the Arab Spring may refer to Twitter Revolution or Facebook Revolution as the use of modern technologies facilitated the communication and interaction between participants of political protests.^[3] According to the research made by the project on Information Technology and Political Islam, social media played a central role in shaping political debates in the Arab Spring, helped spread awareness about ongoing events all over the world, and, finally, online revolutionary conversations often preceded mass protests on the ground.^[4] Overall, the influence of social media was critical for protesters to organize demonstrations (both pro- and anti-governmental), disseminate information about their activities, and raise awareness of ongoing events locally and globally.^[5] This impact was also crucial for governments to engage with citizens and encourage their participation in government processes, on the one hand, and to block access to websites and Internet, monitor traffic, on the other, according to “the Arab Social Media Report”, study conducted by the Dubai School of Government.^[5] After analyzing various aspects of the impact of social media in the Arab region including the growth rate of Facebook and Twitter usage, internet traffic, and demographic changes over time the authors of the report came to a conclusion about a critical role of social media in “mobilization, empowerment, shaping opinions, and influencing change” during the Arab Spring.^[5] One expert examined the critical use of narratives in the uprisings, stating that stories are easily spread across the web, and whether the stories are true or not they draw emotion from protesters and bystanders alike, which causes people to take action.^[6] The same expert even related the spread of such narratives to a meme, which is simply the "viral spread of an idea."

Uneven impact of social media on political processes

However, the impact of social media was different in each particular country. Social networks played an important role in the rapid and relative peaceful disintegration of at least two regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, where the governing regimes had little or no social base, while also contributing to social and political mobilization in Syria and Bahrain,^[2] for example in Syria the SEA (Syrian Electronic Army), a "hacktivist" group was established in order to target and launch cyber attacks against the political opposition and news websites.^[7]

For instance, in the aftermath of Tunisian Revolution, in Egypt with the help of Facebook campaign “We Are All Khaled Said” organized by the opposition April 6 Youth Movement, which is Egypt's "largest and most active online human-right activist group" with more than 380,000 followers,^[8] the call to protest was spread and online dissent was translated into the offline world.^[9][10] The profile of the most active users of social networks – young, urban, and relatively educated, fully matches the description of the first anti-governmental protesters in the country in January 2011,^[2] and can translate the fact that the Arab Spring truly began as a youth revolution meant to "promote a collective identity" and "mobilize people online and offline".^[11]

While nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a poll that they used Facebook to organize protests and spread awareness,^[12] given the small Facebook penetration in Syria and Yemen the role of the social network wasn’t central.^[5] Statistics show that during the Arab Spring the number of users of social networks, especially Facebook, has risen dramatically in most Arab countries, particularly in those where political uprising has taken place, with the exception of Libya, what could be explained by the outflux of people from the country.^[5]

The reaction of governments differed significantly as well. While the Tunisian government blocked only certain routes and websites, through which protests were coordinated, the Egyptian government went further, at first having blocked Facebook and Twitter, then having totally blocked the access to the Internet in the country on January 28, 2011.^[2] The Internet blackout in Egypt lasted for 5 days and failed to stop the protests. On the contrary, it fueled them.^[13] That being said, social media surely played an important role in gathering people to protest and spreading awareness for the unfair treatment of Arab citizens, but it did not create a final solution to the unrest and was not a deciding factor in how the situations would be concluded.^[14]

Other instruments of coordination used during the Arab Spring

Social networks were not the only instrument for rebels to coordinate their efforts and communicate. In the countries with the lowest Internet penetration and the limited role of social networks, such as Yemen and Libya, the role of mainstream electronic media devices - cell phones, emails, and video clips (e.g. YouTube) was very important to cast the light on the situation in the country and spread the word about the protests in the outside world.^[2] In Egypt, in Cairo particularly, mosques were one of the main platforms to coordinate the protest actions and raise awareness to the masses.^[1] The role of television was also very high. Some argue that the constant live coverage by Al Jazeera and other news agencies during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 prevented mass violence by the Egyptian government in Tahrir Square as the cameras provided exposure and coverage. On the contrary, in Libya violence was much widespread because demonstrations were not focused on a single area and thus were difficult to cover live.^[15]

Criticism of the role played by social media 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.^[1] 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 mobilization but they didn’t play a decisive and independent role in it. For example, in Egypt the existing gap between the ruling elite and the population would eventually have resulted in some kind of uprising, while social media acted as a mere catalyst.^[2]

Malcolm Gladwell in his article “Small Change. Why the revolution will not be tweeted” outlines two main reasons why social media cannot be considered as a factor of real social change. Firstly, social media lead to low-risk activism based on weak ties among participants that means that activities in the Internet unnecessary result in a direct political action while giving the sense of belonging and participation for people who may never have met in reality.^[16] For example, in Syria the action “days of anger” announced on Facebook didn’t cause large protests, which happened only after mass arrests of teenagers occurred, resulted in violent clashes with the police.^[1] Secondly, social media are not hierarchically organized that complicates the decision-making process achieved through consensus.^[16]

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