Liberalization of the Іnternet and regime survival in the Middle East.
Keywords:
Arab Spring, online-activism, Internet censorship, authoritarian regimeAbstract
The article dwells upon the state of Internet freedom and general position of online communities in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. The Arab states attempts to censor and filter the content online as well as put some pressure on the Internet users are analyzed in relation to the general political, social and economical situation in the region. To prevent escalation of social and international conflicts in the region Middle East governments, in author’s opinion, should restrain from imposing new restrictions on the Internet and consider instead the option of gradual liberation of the web-sphere, as such a move could help to solve some long-standing problems of the MENA region and even make the Internet a venue for facilitating the dialog between the governments and their people, thus ensuring the current political regimes’ survival in the middle- to long-term perspective.References
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