Internet freedom ?
The internet becomes a separate, secretive and distinct media, and, to a greater extent, a replacement to the official, government controlled media. The internet and the changing relationship between government and its citizens in the Middle East.
During the 1970s, the last days of the reign of Shah Pahlavi in Iran, the forbidden sermons and teachings of Ayatollah Khomeini were smuggled in from his exile in Paris on audio cassettes – the latest technological innovation of the time. This fact alone provides an important clue to the relationship between regimes in our area and advanced technologies, as a source of receiving and passing on information.
Technology as a whole, and even more so information technology, is an important and serious challenge to a centralized regime which is used to limiting its people’s personal freedom and freedom of expression — as is the case in many countries in the Middle East. The immediacy of the information, the ability to share it and even document it, is a major threat to the existent social and political order, and reshapes the relationships between governments and their citizens in the Middle East.
Internet Proliferation in the Middle East
The internet became an issue in the Middle East in the early 1990s. The last countries to allow it in were Syria and Saudi Arabia, and they have done so only after they were certain of their technological ability to prevent, or stop, free access to the internet and curtail online activity.
Throughout the years, the use of the internet became widespread in many of the region’s countries, and a few of them even became a force to be reckoned with. Data and research show that not only is the population hungry for information about what transpires within the country, they are interested in news from abroad. Another fact became clear – most of the Middle East is not yet fully saturated. There is room to grow.
On the other end of the scale are those countries which did not yet take full advantage of the internet proliferation, probably due to low human resources; despite Syria being more democratic than Egypt, the proliferation of the internet is only half a percent higher, but the growth factor is higher – almost four fold.
The Internet as a Tool for Creating Information
The unique quality of the internet when compared with other forms of news media such as newspapers, radio and television lies in the fact that it is a two-way exchange channel, a channel in which the user gets the information and is able to share it on. With the “old” forms of news media, the user got the information though pre-determined and sometimes official channels, which, more often than not, filtered and reworked the information.
In contrast, with the internet, users are the end-users. They choose the information they would like to get from any source on any corner of the world. Through the internet, users get the information straight from the source (be it the media, blogs, forums etc.) without the interference or editing of any other entity.
But the power of the internet extends even further. The fundamental difference between it and the “old” news media lies in the fact that it is a two-way channel. The internet enables the end user not only to receive information but create it, upload it and let it be seen all over the world. This fact alone poses a real challenge to governments as a whole and more particularly to those regimes that have less than stellar record when it comes to personal freedom and freedom of expression.
An example for this kind of challenge and the conflicts it brings can be seen in the formation of the “Unit to Combat Cyber and Internet Crimes” which was formed by the Egyptian government on September 2002, with the mandate to investigate cyber crimes and the ability to interfere in real time. The main interests of this unit were found to be those users who frequented pornographic sites quite often.
The unit can identify and locate the user quite easily since all the internet servers in the country get their services through the government’s Communications and Information Technology Ministry. The unit first became known on March 5, 2004, when the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published the story of a man detained by this Unit for creating a website in which he attacked a government official and his family.
Internet and Fringe Movements in the Middle East
Many fringe groups in the Middle East use the internet to make themselves heard, and to question and shake the prevailing social, cultural, religious and political order, where voices are routinely silenced. For instance, the internet enables women of the region to talk about their lives which are sometimes lived completely behind a veil. It enables them to protest their standing in society and to work towards more gender equality. This vast activity manifests itself in an array of initiatives, among them dozens of organizations that are active in the Middle East and work to promote equality for women and have an active presence on the internet. The expressions of Arab women from all over the Middle East, discussing a variety of issues that have to do with their stand in the Arab society and include the ills of the current status are also posted loud and clear. Specific internet sites deal with divorce in Saudi Arabia for example, or the voice of a radio station founded by women in Egypt which has a strong online presence.
The internet is used by other groups as well: reformists, secular groups opposing the current regime, and on the other side of the scale, elements that are fundamentalists, Muslims who sometimes lack a venue for lawful expression but get their outlet in the online arena.
Human rights organizations document and report via the internet about events and instances of human rights violations in a fast, vast and free manner. They conduct campaigns for the release of prisoners. Bloggers and anti-government individuals use the internet not only as an outlet for their views but also as a form of wide-range insurance policy in case they are detained, arrested or have disappeared.
On April 11, 2009 human rights activist and blogger, Wael Abbas, was arrested by the Egyptian police. From his cellphone, using Twitter, he managed to reach 2,500 followers and report about his detention and treatment by the police. Those who followed him paid attention and passed it on. He was released the next day.
In another case, an American student, James Buck, from Berkeley, California was detained in Egypt while documenting a demonstration. He managed to twit “arrested” through his cellphone and his followers made sure this fact is known. It reached his school in Berkeley. He also was released the next day.
The internet enables a dialogue between different religious movements and between religions, but it also serves sometimes as a battle ground. In the fight between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims their respective websites were breached and corrupted. Some Christian websites who call for the Muslims to change their religion were banned (mainly in Saudi Arabia).
On the other end, religious minorities, like the Copts in Egypt, are very active on the internet as a way to protect their way of life and their ability to practice their religion in the face of the religious intolerance exhibited by some countries in the region.
Another example to this dual flow of information is the Gay/Lesbian communities and their strong presence in the social media. Documentation of harassments is kept and arrests reported in countries all over the world. Publications of safe conduct online and in the physical world, online trips and above all – a meeting place for like-minded people and information exchange about events in our region – all those exist among the users in this community.
In that regard, is it worth mentioning that the “Internet police” in Egypt had diverted its attention and resources to this community. Raids have been conducted when false meetings were posted online. Those who showed up to the meetings were arrested.
Social Media as a Tool for Change in the Middle East
The social media has brought a drastic change to the Middle East. Videos depicting demonstrations and human right violations were posted on YouTube. Facebook has given a platform that enables groups to form and pressures to be exerted, sometimes to such extent that it has reached the physical streets. Twitter is being used as a quick and immediate tool for spreading news in real time.
The social media networks are the ultimate media for a civil unrest, since they are a quick conduit of information, to a large group of people, at the same time. They serve as a way of sending messages between organizers and followers, for coordination and mobilizations of many. Thus, the social media has become an undercover network of clandestine, exchangeable messages, independent and, in a lot of ways, a replacement to the information which is controlled by the government, be it in the way of content or technology.
Those networks are changing the face of the Middle East and the balance of power between the citizens and their government. For the first time, people are able to form personal relationships which were impossible in the traditional Muslim family. Unmarried people can look for a mate and talk about everyday life. Young people are exposed to content that was prohibited. From music video clips, through religious conversion sites all the way to pornography.
In Syria, which in 2007 was called “the biggest prison in the Middle East”, the social networks are a place to voice opinions that are not heard in the official media. Different Syrian groups on Facebook are sometimes successful in bringing change to their country. Thanks to an online campaign, the rape of a teenage girl has become a public discussion about child sexual exploitation. Another example was a call from some bloggers to boycott a cellular phone company because of its high prices and poor service.
In addition to those, there are groups that are active in a campaign to free jailed bloggers, protesting against those arrests. Groups in Syria posted videos on YouTube depicting the oppression of the Kurdish minority.
The blog scene in the Middle East is very active and estimated to be 600,000 bloggers strong, blogging in an Arabic language. About a quarter of them are currently active, and a third originates from Egypt, one of the biggest social media users in the Middle East. This arena is used mainly for creating and receiving information about local matters (the only subject that unites all the Arab world is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). These blogs are used as personal diaries, with social aspects, such as women from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia describing their lives in a traditional, conservative Arab society. Egypt has the greatest number of female bloggers in the Middle East.
Those blogs serve as a platform for expressing views about culture, religion and politics. Side by side with the blogs, social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are immensely popular in the Middle East.
The most important example of Facebook as a social meeting ground can be seen in what is called “the Facebook Riots” in Egypt in April 2008. A few users announced on the site their support for a workers’ strike and created groups that called for a general strike all over the country. Tens of thousands of young people joined those groups.
As a result, wide sections of the opposition parties supported the strike as well, and the news spread. Anti-strike groups were formed as well, but they were joined only by few.
This kind of online activity has been translated to action with demonstrations and clashes with riot police, which, in turn, drew the attention of the world media.
Those reports proved yet again the power of the internet, not only as a tool to engage in creating change, but also as an important source of information, sometimes becoming the only source of reporting about events as they happen.
In addition, this event was one of the first to demonstrate the correlation between online and street actions, when dissatisfaction with the regime turned into physical demonstrations on many city streets.
Iran is another example to the strength of the internet in creating events and reporting about them. During the presidential elections, in June 2009, all four candidates used the internet and social media sites to reach their supporters, acknowledging the proliferation of the internet in Iran. The candidates had Facebook pages, YouTube channels – which showed videos from events, rallies and speeches and their pictures were uploaded on Flicker.
The might of the internet in Iran was revealed to all only after the elections, when the social media networks became the heroes in this struggle against the regime. Mousavi’s supporters took to the streets to protest and called their supporters, via the internet, to join them. They documented the demonstrations and the clashes with the government’s security forces.
From the streets, activists reported, via cellphones, to their Twitter accounts and to the rest of the world. The video showing the last minutes of Neda Soltan, after she was shot by the security forces, turned her into the symbol of this struggle. If this video was not uploaded to YouTube, her death might have gone unnoticed, and she wouldn’t be called a martyr for the cause and a hero.
Other sites such as Picasa and Flicker are used to upload pictures of all kind; from mundane everyday life to documenting demonstrations, human rights violations, arrests etc.
Counter-activity by the Governments
The use of social networks as an alternative, and sometimes the sole news media, presents an opposition to the established orders in Middle Eastern countries and shakes to its core the grip the regimes have on information. The internet forces governments to use advanced technologies, rules and laws to prevent, enforce and neutralize the online activity and even the cellular activity.
Governments in the Middle East are some of the most oppressive regimes when it comes to internet freedom and they respond harshly against what they consider a violation. Arrests, intimidations, sites blocking and blog shutting down — have all been used. Reporters Without Boarders (RWB) declared 17 countries to be “internet enemy” or “under observation” by the group. Seven of those countries are from the Middle East and North Africa. Five of the ten labeled “dangerous for bloggers” are in the Middle East: Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. Those regimes have arrested dozens, if not hundreds of bloggers.
YouTube is considered one of the most blocked sites in the Middle East because of its vast array of videos depicting everything and anything. Some of those include clips that contradict the social, cultural and religious codes of conduct in many countries of the region and remove the grip of the government on information and culture. YouTube has been blocked, without explanation, in Morocco and Sudan. In Syria the site was blocked because it showed the president’s wife dress blowing in the wind during some official event. In Tunisia the site was blocked because of videos showing human rights violation in the country. This is especially true for Turkey, which blocked YouTube more than any other country in the region because of Greek videos that tarnish the name of Ataturk, the “Father of the Turkish Nation”. Those countries routinely call on YouTube to remove specific clips.
Facebook was blocked in Syria because it enabled communication between Syrians and Israelis. It has been blocked for three years now. In the UAE an application that enabled people to meet, was blocked. Some regimes went even further, as some in North Africa did, penetrating the opposition pages and taking them offline.
Realizing the power of those social networks and in order to fight the opposition they were enabling, accounts were opened on many sites, sponsored and paid for by the government. Government officials have personal websites. Regimes open accounts, pages and groups on Facebook, Flicker, YouTube and Twitter with the sole purpose of supporting the current order. The government of Iran opened thousands of blogs for the units of the Basij militia.
Since the participation in those blogs is voluntary, the sporadic and minimal use of those blogs is proof positive to the failure of governments in harnessing the social media for their use. Internet users in the Middle East have won it over as a communication and protest tool against the establishment.
The internet and the social media in particular serve those who call for change – political and social. Among them are liberal elements from one end and terrorists on the other. Internet users are tugging on the lines of freedom of speech in their countries and reshaping the balance of power between regimes and their citizens.
The wealth of information available to users and the documentation they are creating, force the regimes to change the way they operate in several areas:
Human rights: The regimes are forced to be more transparent. In this day and age it is difficult to make anti-government activists disappear. Those actions created, more than once, wide media coverage and were, in Egypt for example, a turning point in regard to torture.
Society: The internet is a new media which enables creation of groups that demand social change. Protests against the cost of living, protests about government red tape, and protests against illiteracy are just a few examples. They have also called for self-examination of national and social concepts.
Politics: Since the regimes of the area are aware of the power of the internet, they sometimes use it for their own purposes. The users are trying to utilize the internet as a tool not only against political oppression but creating groups that can be heard and thus pressure the government for political change.
A Look into the Future
When the mainstream media is under tight constraints, the internet is the only tool for getting uncensored information and passing it on. It is an alternative communication channel to the government-run media.
The lines between regimes and citizens are stretching out not only because the internet enables new opportunities to inform and be informed, but because of the price the governments have to pay. Can a regime ignore calls from online campaigns that have become known internationally? Can a regime pay the price of blocking popular international sites for a long period of time?
If information is power, then the internet shifts this power from the government to the user. The power of the internet all over the world, and especially in the Middle East, is increasing because of its ability to expose information, translate it to a call that challenges the current political, social, economic, religious and cultural existing order. The power to recruit and organize real activism by citizens.
The conclusion is obvious: because of the internet’s penetration into the Middle East, the demands for personal freedom by the users will increase and so would the friction between the regimes and the citizens. Those will pressure and deepen their calls for change in events similar to the ones that took place in Egypt and Iran, events which might bring more dire results next time.
Without a doubt, with time, the internet will bring social and political changes to the Middle East present order, and will force the regimes to change the way they conduct their governance, — change their relationships with their citizens – or even change altogether.
