Social media, namely Facebook, in the Middle East and North Africa are used just like they are used here in the United States. The people of the MENA region use these sites for communicating with family and friends, as a source for news, as well as a place to connect and engage with strangers who may share similar passions or beliefs. However, Facebook has played a role in some MENA countries that it has not played here in the U.S, and that role being promoting democracy in countries that have seen intense media censorship enacted by their governments.
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In Tunisia Facebook played a vital part in the Revolution in that it “organized and energized young revolutionaries.” Now, several years later, it is still an integral part of the Tunisian media landscape. As of 2012, Tunisia had 3,134,500 Facebook users, which is 29.6% of the country’s population. However, Facebook has become less of a revolutionary tool and is increasingly being used as a place to catch up on national and international news. This is not an ideal situation because, even though Facebook has done a lot of great things for Tunisia, it is not a credible news source. Anyone who has Facebook will be able to point to at least one instant where they read something that was false and/or posted something they believed to be true and later found out was not. They would also be able to tell you how fast and how wide the spreading of said false story was. Once an article or online posting of any sort makes it’s way on to Facebook it is nearly impossible to stop the diffusion. With that being said, it is easy to see how in a place like Tunisia who relies heavily on Facebook for it’s information can fall victim to the wide dispersal of falsities and how in a developing democracy this can be incredibly detrimental.
(photo) Like Tunisia, social media is playing a crucial role in Egyptian life during and post- revolution. Today, Egypt has the largest amount of Facebook users in the Arab world. A report published in August 2013 related that 12 million Facebook users in Egypt are under 30 years old, with 81% of the total amount of female users being under 30. I found this statistic to be fascinating because according to an article published by BBC in November 2013, Egypt is “the worst country for women’s rights in the Arab world.” However, Facebook analysts have said that female Facebook users in Egypt are more culture-orientated than Egyptian male users. I hope that these statics mean that, as time moves forward, Facebook will allow Egyptian women to begin to fight for equal rights and use social media to propel and spread the word of their in a similar way that it was used to propel the Arab Spring.
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