social media; New tools of power in the Middle East
The Middle East has always been a region of competition, and countries within it have long used linguistic, religious, and cultural ties to influence the political environment. Utilizing the latest communication technologies has been critical to the success and survival of many leaders. Countries that do not control the information space are at risk of being destroyed by this information.
Of course, the Middle East is not the only region to do so. Western nations also try to influence foreign audiences through radio, television, and social media, usually through official government accounts. In addition to fierce regional rivalries, the lack of free media in many countries and the people’s distrust of government and institutions are driving people to social media, leaving the Middle East region vulnerable to cyber-conspiracy.
In a report entitled “The Social Media War in the Middle East,” the American Institute for the Middle East Institute’s abuse of social media, and in this article, the tools used, how to use them, why and goals of actors, as well as strategies to deal with Examined it.
Bitter experiences of governments, stimulating the use of cyberspace
The existence of various historical experiences in the field of conspiracies through the media has intensified the tendency to use cyberspace. Events such as the false pretext of the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the numerous attempts by regional governments to weaken and overthrow each other are examples of such experiences.
Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been active in intelligence campaigns, according to the American Institute for the Middle East. They use a range of covert and overt tools, disseminating false information to strengthen their regimes, silence critics and weaken rivals.
Social media has an attractive space for government advertising. Operating on social media is cheap and inexpensive; Allows denial; It enables regimes to reach large audiences, and in addition, these platforms are easy to use.
Social media dynamics are important issues, but judging their success is difficult. However, in order to anticipate the possible effects of these measures and design the best solutions to improve the quality of information and limit these conspiracies in the region, it is crucial to know the methods and motives of countries for these measures.
What are the tools of using social media?
Giving false news and spreading lies is one of these tools that countries have a long history of using. In the past, leaders around the world struck coins with images of them to establish their legitimacy and even to show that they were divine and sacred. With the change of technology, this type of intelligence operations also underwent changes, and the invention of the printing press, radio and television all led to the creation of new types of advertising methods.
Many governments use foreign companies as part of their efforts. Some use “robots”; Independent programs that mimic personal accounts.
Different methods have different advantages. Robots are cheap, and having a large number of them can do a huge amount of tweets, likes, and the like for governments. However, they are easy to identify and remove. Hence, governments now use more human accounts or a combination of the two; An issue that makes it harder for social media companies to identify.
Manipulating the main content of the content and changing the content in its favor, using a fake identity on the Internet and introducing itself as a real user, falsifying the identity of politicians, etc. on social media are other examples of these tools.As mentioned, campaigns and their sponsoring governments use a variety of tools to increase their influence on social media. Some of these efforts are to create content, but others are to reinforce the desired content, whether fake or real.
At times, governments combine traditional media resources with social media. For example, from 2018 to 2020, Egypt launched an operation that combined traditional media such as the Egyptian newspaper Al-Fajr with social media to spread anti-Qatar sentiment in the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf.
Also, manipulating the main content of the content and changing the content in their favor, using a fake identity on the Internet and introducing themselves as a real reporter or user, falsifying the identities of politicians and journalists on social media are other examples of these tools.
What are the benefits of using cyberspace for Middle Eastern governments?
Social media platforms bring many benefits to governments. The main advantage is that the use of these platforms is relatively cheap and has few barriers to entry.
Another advantage of using social media scans is that they provide users with a degree of denial. Some countries conduct their operations directly, but others, in order to increase the possibility of denial, secretly carry out these operations and provide financial assistance to private companies in this regard; They encourage their citizens to carry out such operations or only put activities such as hacking and harassment on their agenda.
Because social media scans use obscure or inaccurate sources, they can pass on a lot of inaccurate information to individuals privately without the messages being made public.
Also, social media as a resource is often more reliable than traditional media; Even if the information provided by both sources is the same; Because on social media, family and friends, who are generally more trusted than media organizations and governments, share news and other information through Facebook and other platforms.
In addition to being cheap and effective, social media scans; Fierce competition and militant policies in the Middle East have led countries in the region to become more aggressive in their intelligence operations. In other words, it can be said that Middle Eastern regimes are eager to take advantage of cyberspace due to fear and the need to limit it, as well as the opportunities that exist in this field. Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, sought control of newspapers, satellite TV, and other media.
Revealing the truth to users and people, raising awareness about real and accurate information, supporting and defending people whose accounts are being misused, and hiring experts and increasing their capabilities in this area are some of the measures that can be used to reduce the spread of lies. .Strategies to curb the abuse of cyberspace
Governments, social media companies, and civil society organizations can play an important role in combating these dynamics. A large part of the technical expertise and knowledge related to these ongoing operations lies in the private sector; Therefore, the government should be able to involve private sector experts in cooperating in this field.
The American think tank suggested to the governments of the United States and other so-called democracies that, in addition to improving their technical capacity, they also increase their ability to identify these dynamics.
The process of sharing information between governments that provide information on various schemes to social media companies, as well as how this information is shared, needs to be improved; Because competing governments typically use multiple platforms for their activities, all of which must be monitored.
Social media companies also need to improve their ability to protect opposition accounts, especially those that do not operate in an English-speaking environment, as well as regular users who may be misled by misinformation. Finally, the United States must improve its ability to launch information drives on social media.
Restricting social media dynamics was another of the institute’s proposed solutions that governments should include in their foreign policy agenda. Social media companies should be at the forefront of these efforts to eliminate the dissemination of misinformation and curb government abuse of these media.
Account suspension is a common approach in this regard. Twitter, for example, constantly deletes accounts containing offensive content and often tries to remove bots and human networks that exploit this space. In addition to widespread suspensions, companies sometimes suspend the accounts of regime officials.
Also, social media companies need to constantly share their information with each other, because a regime that is manipulating a platform is likely to do the same in other software.
Revealing the truth to users and the public, raising awareness about real and accurate information, supporting and defending people whose accounts are being misused, and hiring specialists and increasing capabilities in this area are other examples of measures that can be taken to reduce the spread of lies and curb war. The media used them.
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