Media and State Control in the Middle East

By Emile Nakhleh

Dr. Emile Nakhleh is a retired Senior Intelligence Service Officer, a founding director of the CIA's Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program and the Global and the National Security Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico. Since retiring from the government, Nakhleh has consulted on national security issues, particularly Islamic radicalization, terrorism, and the Arab states of the Middle East. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

As street protests continue unabated in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, and other Middle Eastern countries, regimes have used the social media platforms and traditional media to track, control, and repress their citizens. Iran has shut down the Internet and other digital platforms. Since traditional media and journalism outlets, especially newspapers and television have always been owned by the state, regimes have been adept at manipulating these media platforms.

As social media has become more technologically advanced and ubiquitous, and as Middle Eastern youth have flocked to the Internet and digital platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, regimes have begun to exploit new ways and technologies to control their people and track their dissidents, domestically and internationally. In response to street protests this week, Iran blocked much of the Internet in the country.

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