Skype's CEO said that “Bahrain provides one of the most energetic environments to support and encourage innovation – with a talented local workforce and forward-thinking economic development strategies that help support business and broaden regional presence”. He added that “The Middle East and Africa has a young, tech savvy population and we believe that Bahrain will play a central role in making Skype even more popular in the region.”

The announcement was part of Bahrain's vision of national economic strategy called ‘Vision 2030′ which includes telecommunications and information systems.

Indeed, Bahrain is a regional leader with regard to Information Technology in general and the Internet in particular. Internet penetration rate in the UAE reaches the level of 88%, higher than Israel's penetration rate, which is about 72%. In addition, Bahrain has been located at the top of the Middle Eastern countries by the 2010 UN report on the level of e-government readiness.

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Screenshot of the block page.

An investigation I conducted shows that on the morning of July 29th, the website Wikipedia was available within Iran, but the reported Persian website (balatarin.com) is blocked in Iran. This blockage of Balatarin is due to its position against the government and its “crucial role in the pro-democracy movement in Iran“, as it explains in its About page. As well as “many of the human rights abuses were publicized on Balatarin for the first time”. For this reason “Iranian government has in numerous occasions blamed Balatarin along with Facebook and Twitter as the “plotters” of the after election turmoil in Iran.”

We mention the example of Balatarin here as a testimony to the phenomenon that exists in Iran for for many years: websites that are blocked permanently in the country, while others are blocked from time to time due to specific causes.

In addition, the Iranian authorities had coped with the situation of differences in Internet filtering policies. This is due to the existence of many Internet ISPs which fulfilled the government's policy in different ways. Which creates a situation in which sites are blocked in one region but available in another area. To prevent this problem, the Iranian government worked several years ago to create a comprehensive system, based on an Iranian software company, with the aim to create one unified filtering system that enables to deal with various different circumvention technologies.

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Bing search engine is active in 41 languages and it offers a Web filtering system based on keywords entered into the system in advance, according to different countries. In this way, Bing avoids a free Internet usage among countries in the Middle East while performing search using terms with a sexual orientation – in English and Arabic.

The study was conducted between 2 and 15 January 2010, by inspecting 100 keywords in Arabic and 60 English. The list contains sexual terms as well as those which do not have sexual meaning (terror, violence, politics, women's rights and religion). The search was made using Bing search engine in four countries, which operates different levels of Web filtering: United Arab Emirates, Syria, Algeria and Jordan.

The results showed that Bing search engine filter terms in Arabic and English through which users can reach sexual and LGBT content. The experiment revealed that Bing search engine is filtering also some of these keywords in English when searching for images.

While performing a search using one of these keywords, the user will be noticed (in Arabic or English) that the search result may include adult content, determined by the search engine settings depending on region or country.

Bing search engine does not allow users in the Middle East to control the filtering or to turn it off. On the other hand, the study reveals that if user in the Middle East choose and use the search engine's version that matches to one of the western countries, it will not filter the list in question.

Internet filtering performed by Bing search engine is not complete; it only deals with sexual content and only in the local versions in the Middle East of the search engine. However, even so, this activity of Microsoft is a further evidence of regional governments’ efforts to block websites, primarily for reasons of maintaining the values of morality, culture and religion of the local societies.

Unfortunately, this study highlights the role of organizations such as Microsoft in the issue of Internet filtering and the efforts of Middle Eastern governments to constrict free Internet in the Middle East.

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Police ordered all ISPs to block access in a number of gambling sites, most of them abroad, which are suspected to be owned by Israelis: http://hebrew.vcpoker.com, http://www.victorchandler.com, http://keshcard.com, http://www.stanjames.com and http://thespinroom.com.

In practice, most of the sites are part of http://www.victorchandler.com (active in several languages including Hebrew) or link directly to it. This site indicates that there are different products that have designated URLs: VC Casino, VC Live Casino, VC Games and VC Poker. However, these designated pages actually redirect to http://www.victorchandler.com.

The police instructed Israeli ISPs to block the IP addresses of relevant sites and asked to respond within 48 hours. On the other hand, the ISPs argued for lack of actual ability to block IP addresses and lack of authority for such blocking. Indeed, with the announcement of this news, reference started in various forums, including tips on how to bypass the blockage over those web sites.

This instruction of the police is not the beginning of a move against online gambling in Israel, but for now the culmination of this activity;

Three weeks ago, 28 people were arrested in connection with two major sites: victorchandler.com and stanjames.com. This was in suspicion of distributing prepaid cards worth tens of millions of NIS for gambling on the websites. These cards are sold in amounts of 100-5,000 NIS for each. The need to use alternative paying cards came after the block, since 2007 by the credit card companies and under police orders, of the option to pay on these gambling websites using credit cards. In this regard, the Police examined in mid 2009 the Israeli banks internal procedures regarding the clearing of credit cards over the Internet, including a warning to bank managers to prevent the activities and involvement of criminal organizations in the clearing on the Internet.

Mid-November 2009, an online gambling affair was exposed with a raid on the homes of 36 suspected of involvement in a network of online gambling and bets made via the sites http://bet555.net, http://betbet.us. In February 2010 indictments were filed against 22 of those who were behind these gambling sites. It was the first time that charges have been issued in respect of bets made only on the Internet.

At the end of 2009 another gambling affair was exposed. In this case the roulette was aired directly on the Internet cafe in Israel and abroad and watched by the betting users. The police raided the relevant Internet cafes and arrested 12 defendants in the case known as ‘Queen Mary'.

A few days earlier an indictment of the management involved in online gambling network that spread across more than one hundred sites in Israel between the years 2000-2002 has been made public. Those who were involved were charged with gambling money laundering and tax evasion.

Behind this campaign of eradication of illegal gambling, stand the official institutions betting in Israel, Winner-Toto and the National Lottery. The only two that are allowed to conduct lawful gambling on the Internet in the country, even if their servers are located outside of Israel. According to their argument, the scope of the legal sports books in about 5 billion ILS (around 1.25 billion USD) a year compared with a triple amount of the illegal sports betting sector. It is estimated that illegal gambling is the main income of the crime organizations in Israel.

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Following the attempts being made in the last decade to limit by legislation the Internet freedom in Israel, MK Alex Miller submitted this bill, once again, on April 1, 2009 (P/456/18). The same bill was submitted in the previous Knesset (P/1752 /17) by the same member on November 27, 2006.

The proposal was discussed earlier in the Knesset on October 24, 2007 and was rejected at a meeting of the Economic Committee on February 26, 2008. To the current effort of MK Miller to pass this bill, joined six other members of the Knesset.

Now, after being approved, the bill will pass for a first vote in the Knesset. Most of the bills in the past were a real limitation on the free use of the Internet in the form of blocking sites or restricting access in workplaces and public places. However, those bills were not accepted in most cases.

Since the bill is not a direct limitation on access to websites, but to impose a duty on Internet service providers to provide information and software on this matter, it is possible that the bill will eventually be approved.

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The Internet reached the Middle East in the early 1990′s, but its proliferation rate has really been booming since the turn of the millennia. During these years, Internet use in the Middle East (including Israel) grew by an astounding 1,648%, whereas the global average was just 380%. The penetration rate has reached 28% (higher than the global average of 26%). This is despite the fact that Internet users in the region constitute merely 3.3% of the world users. Interestingly, Iran and Syria boasted the highest rates of growth (12,780% and 11,783% respectively).

The Middle East, however, is quite diverse in this respect too; alongside the Gulf States, with a penetration rate of 50% or more, you find countries like Iraq and Yemen with just 1% penetration. The Internet and its social networks were certainly one of the most powerful influences on the Middle East in this decade, but not necessarily in terms of economic and commercial opportunities recognized by some governments in the region. The influence of Internet in the Middle East stems mostly from its very nature, namely, an immediate, wide-spread medium accessible to almost anyone through any mobile device, a means perfectly suited for information exchange by citizens under highly restrictive rule.

In its second decade in the Middle East, the Internet has been increasingly challenging many of the region's governments – dictatorships that impose strict limitations on civil freedoms. It has brought about the formation of pressure groups for social and political change on FaceBook, allowed for real-time coverage of events through Twitter and YouTube and even hosted online campaigns in support of arrested bloggers.

The recent pinnacle of this phenomenon was the presidential election in Iran in June 2009. The people of Iran have been known to crave information and communication for years – even since the time of Khomeini, who would spread his sermons throughout the country on audio tapes, and to this day, when satellite dishes adorn every rooftop in Teheran. All four presidential candidates employed the Internet vigorously, relying particularly on various social networks.

But the great power of the Internet in Iran and the stark defiance against governance it can harbor were fully revealed when the election results were made public. Hordes of people poured to the streets of Teheran and other cities in demonstrations of protest that were abetted online by Iranian bloggers and regular users who relayed the information to the world at large. Direct reports from the scene were posted on Twitter, hundreds of videos from the streets were uploaded to YouTube almost in real time, and a lot of images were uploaded to Flickr. This flow of information proved how strong the Internet can be in authoritarian countries and made known the aspirations of the Iranian public.

Hence, as far as I am concerned, the true hero of the decade is your run-of-the-mill Iranian Internet user – a user who has to cope with strict government constrictions, limiting laws, stern control, Internet police (in Iran and Syria), lack of adequate technological and communications infrastructure in certain places, and often deliberately high usage costs. The heroes are all those anonymous users and active bloggers who are willing to suffer the direst consequences, including incarceration and even execution.

The deeper the Internet penetrates our region, the wider information and criticism are spread and the call for change heard – and the bigger the problem that local regimes would be facing. Governments’ interactions with their citizens will be altered. The Internet's role as soapbox for infringed sectors and suppressed voices in this part of the world will be enhanced, rendering it a spearhead of democratization processes.

This post by Tal Pavel has been published first in Hebrew.

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One of the main instruments for this is Second Life (SL), accessible on the web since 2003, wherein users hold copyrights for anything they create in this virtual world and may therefore sell their creations for real money. Thus emerged a virtual economy, where real money is used to buy virtual products, and the link between the virtual and the real economies has become obvious and undeniable. Not only private users play the game. Companies too attain a foothold there, establishing virtual recruitment centers, colleges, embassies and even a bureau of Reuter's news agency[1], covering virtual current events that occur in SL. Meetings and job interviews are also held online.

The extent to which virtual worlds have permeated ours is made evident by the fact that so far, SL has registered more than one billion hours of usage and more than one billion US dollars have been exchanged there in virtual commerce. The number of usage hours in the second quarter of 2009 was 33% higher than that of the same quarter in 2008. The virtual economy grew by 94% during that year. Users produce over 250,000 new products a day. The total area of virtual land created and the amount of texts and chats going through has also grown by dozens of percents. The average visit duration is 100 minutes[2].

The Arab World

Virtual worlds have reached Arab countries too, and are engaging various aspects of life there. First among them is Muxlim Pal – “The first Muslim virtual world providing a new kind of family friendly social online environment for your entertainment”[3]. In this virtual world drugs, alcohol, sexual behavior, murder and other crimes are prohibited. It is designed to better the communication and understanding between east and west, as well as to bring Muslim communities, especially in western countries, together. It is therefore aimed at a Muslim and non-Muslim audience alike.

There is also considerable and varied activity in SL, through 36 Arab “islands” erected there, such as the “Saudi Arabia Island” and the “Middle East Island”, each already visited by 25,000 users. These islands host meetings, social events, cultural events and business meetings, which, like other online conjunctures, are infeasible in the real Muslim world[4].

There are also religious activities (pilgrimage to Mecca[5], tours of famous mosques[6], sermons[7] and debates about religious issues[8]), demonstrations pertaining to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict[9], collection of donations to aid Gaza Strip residents[10] and even some demonstration by Iranians, in the aftermath of the presidential election there[11].

Other enterprises include a virtual Saudi Arabian airline[12], various cultural activities[13] and business collaborations with a view to expand the use of virtual worlds in the Middle East[14]. Users from many Arab countries have also been known to visit Red Light Center – a virtual venue for all sorts of sexual escapades[15].

The Infrastructure Holdback

In a survey held two years ago[16], Turkey and Israel were found to be the region's leaders in SL usage, followed by Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia (in that order). It was surprising to find that Iran came in only eighth out of twelve in this survey, despite being a regional power as far as Internet penetration and proliferation is concerned. This was undoubtedly due to the stringent restrictions imposed by the Iranian government on Internet usage, including bandwidth limitation. But the usage rate also depends on the communications infrastructure.

Using virtual worlds is quite demanding; in order to install and run the SL application, for instance, your computer must meet certain operating-system, graphic-capabilities and processing-power requirements. It also necessitates a broadband connection.

According to this survey, only 1% of SL users are from the Middle East (about half the region's general-user rate at the time), and the proportion of actual usage (in hours) was even smaller. This was due to the low number of broadband connections in the Middle and East and Africa – 2.55% of all connections, as at the time of survey[17]. This low percentage was a result of meager infrastructure and in some cases, of a deliberate government resolution. This accounts for the relatively low penetration and usage rates of virtual worlds in the Middle East.

Virtual Terrorism

Islamic terrorism has yet to be incorporated into the virtual worlds, but it is assumed that it will find its way there, chiefly because it makes it so easy to communicate, spread propaganda, transfer and even launder money, and all in different languages. Furthermore, Islamic terrorists tend to embrace and harness new technologies. It is, however, likely that until the communication infrastructure in the Middle East sufficiently ameliorates, terrorist factions will use virtual-world sites in western countries, where bandwidths facilitate access. These places may therefore be more convenient for virtual Islamic terror, but not for any real terrorism for the time being.

Nevertheless, there is an online group called the SL Liberation Army (SLLA), which wages war against the “hegemony” of the company that developed the program, employing, among other means, virtual terror attacks (bombings and shootings). There are also some individual users (“griefers”) who try, just for fun usually, to interrupt other users’ doings. It is assumed that they are not a part of any organization. Some, however, argue that just as the 9/11 hijackers practiced with flight simulators first, extreme Islamic factions practice in virtual worlds for their real attacks[18].

Virtual worlds are in many ways modeled after the real world and there is real money involved. Therefore, as broadband infrastructure develops in the Middle East and those virtual worlds become more accessible, we may expect Middle Eastern criminals and terrorists to use them more, and we might witness virtual terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalists.

This article is originally published in Hebrew (Informationweek.co.il)
- http://www.itpics.co.il/ThePeoplePDF/infow-pdf/1350/79.pdf

[2] http://www.vg247.com/2009/09/22/second-life-users-log-over-one-billion-hours-spend-over-1-billion-in-game/

[3] http://pal.muxlim.com

[4] http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/04/20/71059.html

[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fugTBGuSk&feature=related

[6] http://secondter.wikispaces.com/Second+Life–+Current+Use-+Mosque+Situational+Report

[7] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2009/03/saudi-arabia-cl.html

[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkaE8U8JQIQ&feature=related

[9] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5OuWqyv8wI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-n8TEYryP4&feature=related, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQcOlbBW66w, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQAA9c3d1pQ&feature=related

[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zctOeO2D7jc

[11] http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6388

[12] http://www.saudia-va.aero/indexen.asp

[13] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7FqayH6OLo&feature=related

[14] http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/10/stardoll-partners-with-maktoob-to-enter-arab-market.html

[15] http://www.redlightcenter.com

[16] http://secondter.wikispaces.com/Second+Life–Middle+East+User+Statistics

[17] http://secondter.wikispaces.com/Second+Life–Location+and+User–Middle+East+Broadband+Requirements+Estimate+

[18] http://secondter.wikispaces.com/Second+Life–+Current+Use-+Terror+Attacks+Estimate

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The Spreading of the Internet

The Internet made its first appearance in Iraq in 1998, but only became available for public usage two years later. During the last days of Saddam Husayn’s regime, there were 45,000 users, out of a population of 24 million. Most were government officials, the rest were those who could afford to pay the very high fees which were beyond the means of average Iraqis; these fees were the product of legal limitations on the possession of modems and the absence of appropriate parts and infrastructure, owing to the international sanctions against Iraq then in effect.

At the time, Saddam’s regime created a network of 65 internet cafes, where access to all electronic e-mail services were blocked and connecting even to permitted sites was severely limited. One of the few ways by which these limitations could be bypassed was to travel to the Kurdistan region, where Internet usage was relatively free. [1]

Today, the Internet in Iraq is still a tool of the privileged few: according to official statistics, only 1% of the population can access it, the lowest rate among all Middle East states (Yemen, the next lowest, has a penetration rate of 1.6%, while Oman, the country above Yemen on the list, has a 13.6% rate). [2] However, the Iraqi picture is more complicated. According to a 2008 report, the state internet provider indeed had only 250,000 subscribers, but an American adviser to the Iraqi Communications Ministry estimated that the actual number of Internet users in Iraq was 12 million (!). Most of these users connected to the Internet illegally, through the secondary use of existing subscribers, in order to cope with the authorities’ failure to meet the high demand for connectivity. [3]

Internet Usage Features

Much of Iraq’s youth are Internet-savvy, have web based e-mail addresses and use the Internet for various purposes. There are many Iraqi bloggers,[4] both in-country [5] and outside; some of the latter resided in Iraq until recently.[6] They include men and women of varying ages, writing in English or Arabic. Their blogs, some of which have been active for a number of years, address the myriad goings-on in the country. [7]

One may find on Facebook scores of Iraqi groups and personal pages (both in-country and outside), in English and in Arabic, some with thousands of members, dealing with life in Iraq in general,[8] and a wide variety of specific subjects including: history,[9] the environment,[10] the Turkomen minority,[11] academic life,[12] Iraqi engineers,[13] the Iraqi stock market,[14] football,[15] women,[16] and the Iraqi army.[17] One may also find groups devoted to Saddam Husayn (one labels him the “King of Iraq” and has 69 “fans”, but is almost entirely inactive),[18] and to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush (the group has 1700 “fans”).[19] Some are updated regularly,[20] some have not been updated for a long while,[21] and others have been active for a number of years. The Iraqi state authorities have an Internet presence, including the Presidency,[22] the Cabinet,[23] the Parliament (both national and regional Kurdish),[24] and various government agencies and companies, including the national airline.[25] However, many of the governmental links which appear on the Presidency website are broken,[26] evidence that the Internet in Iraq is still in its initial penetration stage, even at the official level. The US effort to significantly upgrade the information infrastructure in Iraq is palpable. Its Department of Defense invested $165m. in the creation of internet cafes, whose number grew accordingly from 36 in 2004 to 170 in 2006.[27] One may find in these cafes advanced computers with fast internet connections, a variety of software programs, and internet cameras, along with individual cubicles which provide a measure of privacy for the users.

The Internet as a tool for Islamic Extremist Groups.

Many of the various Islamic movements and organizations in Iraq have their own internet sites,[28] some of which are active,[29] others which have ceased being so.[30] Among the active sites is one devoted to the “Snipers of Baghdad.”[31] Another produced a multimedia unit devoted to “The Iraqi Islamic Army’s Harvest for 2008”.[32] In addition, there are discussion forums devoted to these groups.[33] Islamist groups also use YouTube to document their attacks against the foreign forces present in the country, from roadside bombs to sniper fire.[34] Their videos are often accompanied by religious songs.[35] One may also find evidence of the brutality of daily life, including murders,[36] as well as violence committed by government security forces.[37]

It was recently reported that the Islamists in Iraq had used the Internet to hunt down homosexuals participating in chat rooms and forums, in order to torture and kill them. As it is, these groups were said to be responsible for the deaths of 130 homosexual men since the beginning of the year.[38]

Limitations on the Internet

No instances of governmental interference or limitation on Internet usage have been documented in recent years, nor have there been any policy declarations to that end.[39] However, in recent months, the Iraqi authorities have taken a number of steps to limit the freedom of information, including preventing books from being published, and blocking Internet sites deemed to be injurious to the public, i.e. sites with sexual content, or ones which promote drugs, gambling, criticisms of Islam or violence. Internet cafe owners have been compelled to register with the authorities, or face closure. The authorities justify these measures by saying that the offending books and Internet sites encourage violence and have a bad influence on Iraqi youth. Opponents of these measures, for their part, claim that the government’s actions threaten to return Iraq to the bad old days of Saddam Husayn, and make it more like neighboring states.[40]

To conclude, because of Iraq’s severe isolation prior to 2003 and the resulting lack of appropriate infrastructure, plus the country’s chaotic state of affairs since then, it will take quite some time before Iraq reaches the level of neighboring states regarding the degree of Internet penetration and usage. At the same time, it appears that at least a portion of the Iraqi populace is hungry for access to the new media. However, the situation remains fragile. Without a doubt, the more the country achieves in terms of stability and functioning governmental institutions, the greater the role that the Internet will play in the lives of its citizens.

PDF version of this article can be downloaded here:http://www.dayan.org/In_Iraq.pdf

NOTES

[1] http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/net2004/iraq.shtml

[2] http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm

[3]http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/05/25/iraqi_software_pirate_likes_it_offshore_where_his_skills_mean_good_business/

[4] According to my own examination, many of the blogs are based on Google’s “Blogger” platform. Also, in analyzing the blogs on http://iraqblogcountexp.blogspot.com (Iraq Blog Count), which maps Iraqi blogs, one finds that 110 out of 149 registered blogs are based on Google’s platform

[5] http://www.rosebaghdad.blogspot.com
http://moslawi.blogspot.com
http://www.astarfrommosul.blogspot.com
http://iraqi-translator.blogspot.com
http://baghdadentist.blogspot.com
http://confusediraqi.blogspot.com
http://saminkie.blogspot.com

[6] http://aviraqi.blogspot.com
http://www.baghdadgirl.blogspot.com

http://baghdadtreasure.blogspot.com
http://iraqimojo.blogspot.com

[7] http://www.astarfrommosul.blogspot.com – Active since June 2004;
http://secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com – Active since December 2003;
http://neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com – Active since August 2004;

[8] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/group.php?gid=2298113332&ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/group.php?gid=9965939982&ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=69&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/group.php?gid=35884694252&ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[9] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=69&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/group.php?gid=55648240758&ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[10] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/pages/Keep-Iraq-Clean-/200170140345?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[11] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/pages/Kirkuk-Iraq/Iraq-Turkmeneli/58551125117?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[12] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=30#/pages/baghdad-Iraq/University-of-Technology-IRAQ/27326700705?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=30#/iraqedu?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iraq-Scholars-and-Leaders-Program-ISLP/124512469709?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[13] http://www.facebook.com/search/?flt=1&q=IRAQ&o=65&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1&s=10#/pages/Iraq/Iraq-Engineers/66550535071?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[14] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iraq-Stock-Exchange/24947317363?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[15] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hamilton-ON/iraq-fc-2009/86666973300?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iraq-national-footballteam/63534000107?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[16] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-for-Women-International-Iraq/70579588419?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[17] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Army-Of-Iraq/45571733506?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

http://www.facebook.com/pages/-Iraq-Army/118879458567?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[18] http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saddam-HUSSEIN-King-of-Iraq-/106846778623?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[19] http://www.facebook.com/pages/brave-iraq-reporter-attacks-George-w-bush-with-hisshoes/105791760244?ref=search&sid=1431751423.1567501651..1

[20] http://abutamam.blogspot.com

[21]http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
http://bethnahrain.blogspot.com
http://www.theiraqiroulette.blogspot.com

[22] http://www.iraqipresidency.net

[23] http://www.cabinet.iq

[24] http://www.parliament.iq
http://www.kurdistan-parliament.org

[25]http://www.motiraq.org
http://www.iraqimoc.net
http://www.moheiraq.org
http://www.iqairways.com

[26] http://www.cbiraq.org
http://www.uruklink.net/oil
http://www.iraqelectric.org
http://www.moeiraq.info
http://www.ieciraq.org
http://www.iraqi-mwr.org
http://www.iraqiindustry.com

[27] http://opennet.net/studies/iraq2007

[28] For a mapping of the Islamic groups active in Iraq, see, Abdul Hameed Bakier, “Iraq’s Islamic Mujahideen Profiled by Jihadi Websites: Part One,” The Jamestown Foundation, Publication: Terrorism Focus Volume: 5 Issue: 40, 26 November 2008 http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34183; and ibid, “Iraq’s Islamic Mujahideen Profiled by Jihadi Websites: Part Two,”, The Jamestown Foundation, Publication: Terrorism Focus Volume: 5 Issue: 41, 03 December 2008 http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34209

[29] http://www.ktb-20.net/ktb
http://ansar11.org
http://iaisite.org
http://rjfront.info
http://jaami.info
http://al-rashedeen.info

[30] http://www.kataeb20.com
http://al-hesbah.info
http://al-firdaws.info
http://al-ekhlaas.net
http://m3ark.net
http://www.alrashedeenarmy.com

[31] http://baghdadsniper.net

[32]http://alboraqmedia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=1

[33] http://alboraq.info
http://alboraqforum.info
http://alboraq.biz
http://muslm.net/vb
http://hanein.info/vb

[34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs-OIJxDEEQ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORfqCZ3dLc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSv6aOBocMY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY5z5r2UjYo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0kETEhxIis, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgAH9SdwK6s

[35] http://www.archive.org/details/Homaat-Aldaar

[36] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPUWXN3dn2o

[37]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbuFLLG71A, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNIpnIGMb9o, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBztD75sOuQ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yLVyJBIt5c

[38]http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/making-a-career-out-of-killing-gayiraqis-using-internet-lgbt-genocide

[39] http://opennet.net/research/profiles/iraq

[40]http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/middleeast/04censor.html?_r=2&ref=world

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1. the Internet made an enormous wealth of information and services accessible to students and researchers;

2. it was an important venue for commercial publicity and trade;

3. Syrian institutions could employ the Internet to promote Syria’s cultural, archaeological and historical heritage and thus advance the tourism industry;

4. Syria’s positions and rights on vital political issues could be advanced, thus countering the “mistaken positions, lies, and distorted views of Syria which appear on Internet sites supported by international Zionism.”[1]

Eighteen months later, on November 17, 1997, Syria began linking up 150

selected government bodies to the Internet. At the beginning of 1999, accessibility was extended to the broader public, and included e-mail, surfing and file transfer (FTP) capabilities within the country itself.

In its approach to the Internet, the Syrian regime, like other governments in the region, seeks to counter material critical of it that is widely available on-line, while insuring that technological innovation in the country is managed with great care in order to fend off unwanted cultural and political penetration and thus maintain tight control over the population. Hence, the authorities agreed to make the Internet accessible only after confirming that they had the ability to control and monitor its content. Adding to the limitations on Syrian users were the high costs of purchasing a computer and connecting to the Internet, and the country’s inferior communications infrastructure. To be sure, Internet usage has expanded since the beginning of the decade by no less than 12,000(!)%, partly because the costs for doing so have been reduced, and partly because of the strong desire for access among Syria’s relatively educated population. However, the regime has made it clear that control over access will remain in force, and that some sites would remain blocked, in line with “country's traditions and habits”[2]

Hence, only 16.4% of the population currently uses the Internet. Moreover, the restrictions imposed on them by the authorities render Syria, in the words of ‘Reporters Without Borders', among the “Internet’s enemies”.[3] Syrian authorities block websites containing material on human rights, freedom of speech, Syrian opposition organizations and Syria’s Kurdish minority, as well as pornographic and Israeli sites. In recent years, they also began to block international social networking sites, in light of their considerable popularity in the country. In 2007, Syria was even termed the “largest prison in the Middle East” for Internet users and bloggers[4] (as well as one of the 10 worst countries to be a blogger in 2009).[5] Indeed, bloggers often serve lengthy prison sentences and are hounded by the authorities in a variety of ways for their activities.

From the opposite direction, there are Western internet companies which prevent access by Syrian citizens to some of their services. For example, in April 2009, the business-oriented social networking ‘LinkedIn’ blocked access from Syria, but quickly relented following protests by users, which were expressed through Twitter, among other means. LinkedIn explained its initial action as a human error. But internet firms such as ‘Google’ and ‘Sun’ routinely prevent Syrian users from using some of their services, in line with US government restrictions on supplying goods and services to the country.

Notwithstanding these limitations, the penetration of the Internet and the spread of social networking sites in Syria has created an important tool to disseminate information within the country and beyond. Users have often found ways to bypass the authorities’ strictures limiting the freedom of expression and organized activities through the formation of on-line pressure groups which address social and economic issues facing the country. The social networking site ‘Facebook', which operates in scores of languages, including, of course, Arabic, is especially popular in Syria.

The Syrian government’s recent campaign against Facebook and call to boycott it has brought the issue of social networking sites onto the public stage. The matter surfaced following a decision by Facebook’s management to view the Golan Heights as part of Israel, registering users from Israeli settlements there as residents of Israel, and not as residents of Syria, as had been done previously. It was even reported that Syria would block the site entirely. In fact, access had already been hindered for two years, both directly and via proxy sites which make it possible to use Facebook anonymously.[6]

The restrictions on social networking sites were designed to try and prevent Internet users from maintaining contact with one another, whether within the country or beyond. Indeed, it should be noted that on-line connections had been established in the past between Israeli and Syrian residents through Facebook proxy sites. Facebook includes hundreds of Syria-related groups, whose participants, both in-country and outside of Syria, number from the very few to thousands. They cover the gamut of subjects: tourism, business, technology, art and music, sports and student life. These sites also enable users to organize on-line protests, sometimes with considerable effect. For example, the rape of a teenage girl prompted a public discussion regarding the sexual exploitation of children, thanks to an on-line campaign involving thousands of people. An on-line campaign against a draft law dealing with matters of personal status appears to have been decisive in the government’s decision to abandon the proposed statute. Other on-line battles have included one advocating the lifting of all on-line restrictions, for which a personal appeal was even made to Syrian president Bashar al-Asad; and a call by local bloggers to boycott suppliers of cellular phones over matters of price, quality and service. In addition, Syrian Facebook users have organized on behalf of local bloggers who were imprisoned for their activities.

‘YouTube’ is also employed by Syrians seeking to promote causes which are opposed to official policies. For example, clips documenting the repression of Syria’s Kurdish minority have been uploaded to the site. In response, it was reported in August 2007 that the site was blocked by the authorities because it contained a clip which showed the dress of the president’s wife flapping in the breeze during an official state function. Similarly, in May 2008, it was reported that access to the Arabic-language Wikipedia site was blocked by all internet service-providers in the country, without explanation, but in February 2009 the restriction was removed, an unprecedented step.

On-line social networks in Syria serve as a tool for organizing pressure groups, something which simply cannot be done in daily life, owing to the regime’s heavy-handed oversight and repression. These networks provide further tangible evidence of the strength of the Internet not just as a tool to transmit information within extremely restricted political environments but also to create a basis for social change in these countries. As such, they constitute a direct challenge to highly centralized authoritarian regimes such as Syria. This challenge can only grow in the years ahead, as the Internet inevitably expands its reach in the country.

Download this article as a pdf file

[1] Dr. Hasna Askhita, “L’internet en Syrie,”, Assad National Library, Damascus.

Paper delivered at the International Federation of Library Associations &

Institutions meeting, “Réseaux pour le développement des Bibliothèques dans

les Etats Arabes.” Beirut, 2-4 March 2000.

http://nmit.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/linternet-en-syrie/#more-11

[2] SyriaLive.net, “Syrian Internet Installation and Subscription Rates to be

Scrapped,” Computer and Internet – 2002, 5 March 2002.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071212172006/http://www.syrialive.net/computer/ar

chive/com-puter_2002.htm

[3] http://www.rsf.org

[4] Reporters Without Borders, “Syria,” 1 February 2007.

http://www.rsf.org/Syria,20777.html

[5] Committee to Protect Journalists, “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger,” 30

April 2009.

http://cpj.org/reports/2009/04/10-worst-countries-to-be-a-blogger.php

[6] http://www.gotofacebook.co.za, http://facebookoxy.com

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Apart from serving as an additional means of personal communication, Twitter is used in the Arab-Islamic Middle East by a whole range of groups and individuals, covering the entire gamut of society. ‘Tweets’ are employed by political and social movements, religious websites and Islamic cultural centers, as well as for the promotion of films, fashion and commerce. News organizations, such as CNN, the BBC (especially its Persian language service), Al-Jazeera and the Voice of America all have popular Twitter feeds. Twitter speeds up the capacity to deliver the news because of its short and restricted structure, so much so that it is often chosen over newspapers as a person’s primary news source.

As a parallel information universe, Twitter enables the dissemination of information, mobilization of public opinion, and evasion of governmental censors.  In Syria, for example, Twitter enabled a wave of protests against the decision by the website, ‘LinkedIn’ – a social networking geared towards those interested in business – to block its services in Syria, and the decision was ultimately reversed. Earlier this year in Iran, Twitter was employed by ‘the March 18^th movement’ in remembrance of the Iranian blogger, Omid Razah, who died in prison on this date, and to pressure the authorities to release seven Bahai leaders that were arrested during the month of May.

A particularly powerful demonstration of Twitter’s potential came following the arrest of an American journalism student in Egypt while filming a demonstration. He immediately sent a message via his cell phone announcing his arrest to 48 “followers” on Twitter, and the message quickly spread around the world. As a result of the ensuing attention and entreaties, he was quickly released. Similarly, the well-known Egyptian blogger, Wa'el Abbas, was quick to publicize his arrest and subsequent experiences with the police this past April, causing embarrassment to Egyptian officialdom.

The usages of Twitter by women in the Arab world are especially varied, not surprisingly, given the relative anonymity it provides to the user. Twitter allows women to search for spouses, describe their lives, discuss issues pertaining to the status of Muslim women in their societies, and communicate and show solidarity with like-minded individuals, for example, lesbians. Women from Saudi Arabia tend to hide their personal ‘Tweets’ so that only those who have received their permission in advance can read their announcements. Women from most other Arab societies, which are socially more open and less hierarchical than Saudi Arabia, are more likely to enable their ‘Tweets’ to be read by all.

Women’s advocacy groups make good use of Twitter: for example, the Egyptian group ‘All of Us are Laila’ has fought against the inequality in women’s daily lives, in Egypt and the Arab world in general, for the last three years. So does Queen Rania of Jordan, who writes about diverse subjects on an almost daily basis, to a readership of about 125,000.

To be sure, there are those who belittle Twitter’s reliability as a source of information, pointing to its maximum limit of 140 characters per item, and the instant worldwide dissemination of Twitter items without any cross-checking information to confirm their truthfulness. But these limitations are also the basis of its strength. Twitter serves as a speedy and direct platform able to bypass official state media oversight and the limitations on free speech by authoritarian governments. In the Middle East, in particular, it is nearly the only path for different social groups to get their messages across without government interference.

The power of Twitter in transmitting onsite and immediate reporting was highlighted in the months leading up to the Iranian presidential elections and in the subsequent demonstrations against the falsification of the results. Along with other on-line social networks, Twitter served as an almost exclusive source for the unfolding events in the streets of Tehran.

However, Middle Eastern governments have not remained passive in the face of the rapid expansion of the new media, and particularly of on-line social networks which increase the possibilities for individual action and challenges to governments.  The authorities around the region have invested considerable efforts in regulating and restricting these new means of communication. For example, the Dubai government partially blocked the use of the highly popular social networking Facebook website and the internet voice and video Skype program, claiming that their action was justified by “content that was not concurrent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.” Iran has cracked down heavily on Twitter and other social networking sites.  Not only has it blocked access to particular internet sites, it has also installed content filters and monitored traffic on them. This was done by means of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) features installed as a condition for the company’s access to the Iranian market. The ability to monitor internet and Nokia cellular phone traffic resulted in the arrests of a number of persons transmitting reports about the unfolding events in Iran, resulting in a consumer boycott in Iran of Nokia phones as an act of protest.

Time will tell regarding the impact of Twitter on the relations between Middle Eastern authoritarian governments and their citizens. In the meantime, Twitter has demonstrated a capacity to serve as a means for continuous and rapid dissemination of information among wide sectors of the population.  To be sure, this alone cannot bring about far-reaching social change or a fundamental expansion of political and social freedom, but it certainly carries much potential, and even inspires hope among long-disenfranchised and cynical Middle Eastern publics.

This research has been published on July 26th, 2009: Tel Aviv Notes, Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University (PDF).

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