Social Revolutions in the Arab World: Success of 2011 and Failure of 2018

social media, technology, globalization

The Middle East witnessed two social revolutions in less than a decade. The Arab Spring created tremendous social and political changes in 2011 while the Yellow Vest movement failed to make an impact in 2018. Both revolutions started, developed and spread on social media and bypassed the traditional domination of the media and governments. The impact social media had on the civil uprisings changed the face of the Middle East. It determined dramatic changes in the balance of political power, allowing ordinary citizens to influence public agenda, participate in the political process and determine social developments. Social media allowed social movements to flourish, changing the global political landscape. But despite the tremendous role of social media, the Arab Spring created major social and political changes in Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa, while the Yellow Vest Movement, which started in France, continued with unsuccessful attempts to resume social uprisings in the Arab World. Despite attempts to duplicate the French experience in other regions of the world, with the Middle East in particular, the global spread of this revolution was limited. It was not a global uprising but one that had common global social goals, with the reason being is that technology and social networks are much more developed and spread globally today. The paper investigates the impact of social media on populist social revolutions, while concentrating on the differences between the successful civil demonstrations of start of the decade in the Arab World and the failed uprisings of the end of the decade in the same countries.

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