Egypt and Tunisia: A Social Media “Revolution”?

Yasemin Yılmaz*  

Introduction

The recent uprisings in the Arab world took many by surprise. Perhaps it was the duration and the prevalence of authoritarian regimes in the region that made them seem immune to overturns, or it was the support provided to these regimes from the arms and technology rich countries of the first world. In either case, the uprisings opened up new possibilities for the populations in the Middle East, as they also provided a fertile ground of re-examination of social movement theories for scholars. The “leaderless-ness” of the uprisings seemed to distinguish them from their predecessors; the masses were on the streets but not in a familiar fashion. They seemed to be loosely connected political entities, individuals, maybe sharing some common features in terms of demographics like the unemployed or the youth. The role played by “social media” also sparked probably as much discussion as the uprisings themselves.