Engineers from the Israeli company "Commun.it" use their expertise in social media commercial analysis to identify networks of fake users, at their offices in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on January 23, 2019.

Social media has transformed the information landscape in the Middle East over the past decade. The 2009 Green Revolution and the 2011 Arab Spring demonstrated the enormous power of platforms like Twitter and Facebook for political organizing. Popular perception in the U.S. at the time was that these services would democratize a region notorious for its strongman governments. But it also showed governments and militants in the Middle East how powerful social media campaigns can be, if co-opted for their own purposes. So what can we do about it?

In a new policy brief based on discussions held as part of its study group, MEI's Cyber Program explores the issue in detail and provides recommendations on how to address it.

Read the policy brief

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