The Project on Middle East Political Science partnered with Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law and its Global Digital Policy Incubator for an innovative two week online seminar to explore the issues surrounding digital activism and authoritarianism. This workshop was built upon more than a decade of our collaboration on issues related to the internet and politics in the Middle East, beginning in 2011 with a series of workshops in the “Blogs and Bullets” project supported by the United States Institute for Peace and the PeaceTech Lab. This new collaboration brought together more than a dozen scholars and practitioners with deep experience in digital policy and activism, some focused on the Middle East and others offering a global and comparative perspective. POMEPS STUDIES 43 collects essays from that workshop, shaped by two weeks of public and private discussion.
Larry Diamond and Eileen Donahoe
Digital Activism and Authoritarian Adaptation in the Middle East
Marc Lynch
Binary Threat: How Governments’ Cyber Laws and Practice Undermine Human Rights in the MENA Region
Ahmed Shaheed and Benjamin Greenacre
The Implementation of Digital Surveillance Infrastructures in the Gulf
James Shires
The Web (In)Security of MENA Civil Society and Media
Alexei Abrahams
Beyond Liberation Technology? The Recent Uses of Social Media by Pro-Democracy Activists
Joshua Tucker
Chinese Digital Authoritarianism and Its Global Impact
Xiao Qiang
Transnational or Cross-Border Digital Repression in the MENA Region
Marwa Fatafta
Social Media Manipulation in the MENA: Inauthenticity, Inequality, and Insecurity
Andrew Leber and Alexei Abrahams
Marc Owen Jones
Follow the Money for Better Digital Rights in the Arab Region
Afef Abroughi and Mohamad Najem
Digital Orientalism: #SaveSheikhJarrah and Arabic Content Moderation
Mahsa Alimardani and Mona Elswah
Official Foreign Influence Operations: International Broadcasters in the Arab Online
Alexandra A. Siegel
Russian Digital Influence Operations in Turkey 2015-2020
Akin Unver and Ahmet Kurnaz
Middle East Influence Operations: Observations Across Social Media Takedowns
M.A., Renée DiResta, Josh A. Goldstein, and Shelby Grossman
Changing Sources: Social Media Activity During Civil War
Anita Gohdes and Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld