A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Facebook and Middle Eastern Politics

Riffing on the ElBaradei phenomenon, The Arabist contemplates the role of Facebook and Middle Eastern politics. After a period of light posting, he seems to be on a roll lately, and I'm glad to point my readers his way.

It's easy to overstate Facebook's clout: last April the 6 April movement's huge Facebook following led people to expect a major street confrontation in Cairo, but the result was a large police presence and a massive fizzle; ElBaradei's huge Facebook following may be just as ephemeral: but it does show that young Egyptians prosperous enough to have Internet access support reform more than the regime. It tells us nothing about the fellahin. Anyway, read his piece.

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