Social media in the Arab World: leading up to the uprisings of 2011

The Arab world has experienced an awakening of free expression that has now entered the body politic of Tunisia and Egypt and has helped break down the strangle hold of state sponsored media and information monopolies in those countries. Indeed, from Morocco to Bahrain, the Arab world has witnessed the rise of an independent vibrant social media and steadily increasing citizen engagement on the internet that is expected to attract 100 million Arab users by 2015.

This paper provides findings such as:

• About 17 million people in the Arab region are using Facebook, available in Arabic, with 5 million in Egypt alone and demand is expected to grow on micro-blogging sites. Twitter announced it will launch its Arabic interface in 2011
  
• Along with technical capacities come increasing efforts to monitor, filter, and block websites, and harass, arrest, and incarcerate activists or citizens for their online writings. Sites of NGOs and others critical of government have withstood cyber-attacks on content and e-mail accounts
  
• Popularity of online news is gaining audience share from traditional news media, a proportion that is expected to grow as some media outlets have ceased print editions to focus on electronic editions
  
• Indigenous social media platforms are striving to go beyond blogging, to bridge the virtual online world with the physical world by offering community-driven quality news, online video stories, and forums for greater interactivity around timely issues, as well as the showcasing of art and culture.

The paper provides conclusions such as:

• Just as Arab satellite channels helped revolutionize broadcast news, social media is arguably changing the nature of news and community engagement
  
• The real impact of political blogging is still likely to lie in the longer term impact on the individuals themselves, as they develop new political competencies and expectations and relationships
  
• Social networking has changed expectations of freedom of expression and association to the degree that individual and collective capacities to communicate, mobilize, and gain technical knowledge are expected to lead to even greater voice, political influence, and participation over the next 10 to 20 years.