Social media played a visible and unprecedented role in the Middle East uprisings of two years ago. From the video of the Tunisian fruit vendor that went viral on YouTube sparking the chain of events to the coordination of mass demonstrations and crowdsourcing of news stories, new ground in mass communication was broken daily. Autocratic governments in the region had little experience in reacting to this challenge to their control. That has changed. Governments, particularly Syria and Iran, have developed highly sophisticated strategies for dealing with the outburst of freedom on the Internet, imprisoning cyber activists and employing an army of cyber police and censors. The tension between the desire for freedom and the urge to control is playing itself out over Internet platforms as on the street. Join us as our panelists discuss the current state of social media in the Middle East and its future prospects.
More About the Speakers
James Phillips
Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs, The Heritage Foundation
Nancy Okail
Director, Freedom House in Egypt
Ambassador Alberto Fernandez
Coordinator of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, U.S. Department of State
Hosted By
Helle C. Dale
Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy
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