Structure and Discourse: Mapping the Networked Public Sphere in the Arab Region

In this study, we employ social network mapping techniques to analyze the shape and structure of the networked public sphere in the Arab region. The analysis is based on four distinct views of digitally connected communities: a regional map of the blogosphere and maps of Twitter networks in three countries: Egypt, Tunisia, and Bahrain. This media ecology mapping across these different platforms and regions offers a detailed view of social, cultural, religious, and political expression through digital media. We observe that the networked public sphere in the Arab region is much different than it was five years ago. With the decline in the blogosphere, Twitter and Facebook now host a large portion of the Arab networked public sphere. By all indications, the networked public sphere is more contentious, more highly polarized, and less conducive to broadly inclusive social mobilization. In Egypt, we see polarized debates on Twitter that divide politically active users into three distinct and largely disconnected groups. In Bahrain, the antagonism between the government and opposition is manifest in a bipolar network structure on Twitter, and the debate is framed in sectarian language that appears intent on deepening the political divide. In comparison, the Twitter network in Tunisia appears to be much more integrated and the discourse between political opponents less hostile, despite the political rivalries there. In each of these countries, the networked public sphere continues to offer a venue for civil society and individual voices that is less restrictive than traditional media. While pro-government actors are now more active in digital spaces compared to several years earlier, the discourse in Egypt, Bahrain, and Tunisia is still tilted towards those that support freedom of speech, civil liberties, and political reform

Openness and Restraint: Structure, Discourse, and Contention in Saudi Twitter

report series, which focuses on key events and new developments in Internet freedom. The report maps and analyzes the structure and content of the Saudi Twittersphere and identifies the communities that coalesce around different political, religious, social, and cultural topics and viewpoints: This study of the Saudi Twittersphere offers a detailed view of public sentiment and provides insights into the overall structure, discourse, and communities of the network. We look into how users take advantage of the fact that Twitter is an unfiltered media platform to advance their political and social causes. We also examine three case studies centered on issues that received extensive attention on Twitter at the national level during the course of this study

Routing Gone Wild: Documenting Upstream Filtering in Oman via India

Produced by the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.This brief documents and analyzes the upstream filtering of web content for users of Oman’s Omantel ISP as a result of content restrictions implemented in India

Sex, social mores, and keyword filtering: Microsoft Bing in the 'Arabian Countries'

  Microsoft recently added a new layer of complexity to the ongoing debate regarding the filtering and censorship practices of U.S. search engines via its own search engine, Bing. ONI testing reveals liberal filtering by Bing in one of the most censored regions in the world: the Arab countries. Microsoft’s Bing, which tailors its search engine to serve different countries and regions and offers its services in 41 languages, has a filtering system at the keyword level for users in several countries. Users in the Arab countries—or, as termed by Microsoft—“Arabian countries”—are prevented from conducting certain search queries in both English and Arabic. ONI testing reveals that Microsoft filters Arabic and English keywords that could yield sex- or LGBT-related images and content

Tender Confirmed, Rights at Risk: Verifying Netsweeper in Bahrain

The authors would like to thank Daniel Valls for research assistance.In this report, we confirm the use of the services of Canadian company Netsweeper, Inc. to censor access to the Internet in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online

This collection of essays includes perspectives on and approaches to harmful speech online from a wide range of voices within the Berkman Klein Center community. Recognizing that harmful speech online is an increasingly prevalent issue within society, we intend for the collection to highlight diverse views and strands of thought and to make them available to a wide range of audiences. We issued an open call to our community for short pieces that respond to issues related to harmful speech online. Through this collection, we sought to highlight ongoing research and thinking within our extended community that would be available to readers in a way that is more accessible than traditional academic research. The 16 short essays compiled in this collection are authored by a global group of friends, colleagues, and collaborators. We hope that this diverse mix of perspectives, viewpoints, and data points provokes thought and debate, and inspires further exploration. Evidence of the complexity of the issue is that no two writers sought to cover the same topic from a similar point of view; from legal perspectives to research results to paradigm-shifting provocations, a multitude of topics, opinions, and approaches are included. Many pieces draw from research, while others are more opinion-based, indicating that discourse around this topic can be inherently opinionated and passionate as well as scholarly and academic. Some pieces are written in a style evocative of advocacy, whereas others are written with scholarly communities in mind. The range of perspectives and opinions found here—and the lack of consensus on some topics—highlight the dynamic complexity of the issues and how competing values are frequently entangled. The pieces  are organized into three categories: Framing the Problem, International Perspectives, and Approaches, Interventions, and Solutions. The first and last sections include essays that build upon our understanding of their categories, and the section on International Perspectives addresses specific geopolitical contexts and ways in which the regulation of harmful speech may or may not be serving the citizens of a particular country or region.