جدلية الكشف والحجب: العلاقات الرقمية المتوترة بين الدولة والناشطين في الشرق الأوسط

الملخص EN

This study aims to engage, through a descriptive approach, with the controversy surrounding the relationship of political regimes to the virtual world.

This is done by examining the structure and components of digital monitoring systems in the countries of the Middle East and their impact on activists' aspirations for informational empowerment.

In this regard, the study sheds light on the relevant censorship/surveillance techniques used by Middle Eastern governments and the ways in which they adapt their legal systems to serve the purposes of digital monitoring, to understand how information and communications technology (ICT) has impacted the relationship between regimes and activists.

The study attempts to assess the extent to which ICT-enabled regimes have succeeded in manipulating the characteristics of the virtual sphere for their censorship and surveillance purposes.

The study concludes that although the virtual space and ICT used to represent a space for and instrument of emancipation for activists, by evading the restrictions exercised by regimes on the public sphere, these regimes have succeeded to a large extent in absorbing new inputs and exercising control over the digital sphere as well.

This casts doubt on the future role of ICT in counter-balancing government tracking procedures.