That Column About Twitter and the Arab Uprisings

This is just a placeholder post to point blog readers to my weekly column:  "Twitter Devolutions: How Social Media Hurt the Arab Spring." It’s based in part on the talk I gave yesterday at McGill University, which hopefully will be available on video soon.  The premise is simple: if we accept that social media played ...

This is just a placeholder post to point blog readers to my weekly column:  "Twitter Devolutions: How Social Media Hurt the Arab Spring." It's based in part on the talk I gave yesterday at McGill University, which hopefully will be available on video soon.  The premise is simple: if we accept that social media played some part, however small, in the Arab uprisings, then what role might it have played in the turbulence and struggles which have followed?   More discussion to come, as I take in the various responses from Twitter and the blogs, but for now I hope you'll go read "Twitter Devolutions"!

This is just a placeholder post to point blog readers to my weekly column:  "Twitter Devolutions: How Social Media Hurt the Arab Spring." It’s based in part on the talk I gave yesterday at McGill University, which hopefully will be available on video soon.  The premise is simple: if we accept that social media played some part, however small, in the Arab uprisings, then what role might it have played in the turbulence and struggles which have followed?   More discussion to come, as I take in the various responses from Twitter and the blogs, but for now I hope you’ll go read "Twitter Devolutions"!

Marc Lynch is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is the author of The Arab Uprising (March 2012, PublicAffairs).

He publishes frequently on the politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arab media and information technology, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Islamist movements. Twitter: @abuaardvark

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