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The he Middle East has always been rife with enmity and rivalry, and its regimes have long taken advantage of the region's many linguistic, religious, and cultural connections to shape the political environment. Exploiting the latest communications technologies was vital to the success and survival of many leaders: Egyptian leader Gamal 'Abd alNasser won the hearts, and often the allegiance, of Arabs throughout the Middle East with his inspiring radio broadcasts. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini helped foment a revolution in Iran by spreading cassette tapes of his subversive sermons. Social media and especially satellite television helped spread revolution in the region during the 2010/11 Arab Spring. Regimes that do not control the information space risk being destroyed by it.
The Middle East is far from alone - virtually every authoritarian regime barrages its own population with propaganda, ranging from state-controlled television to social media campaigns on a wide range of platforms.1 At least some, notably Russia and China, also use social media covertly to influence foreign audiences, as Russia did in the United States' 2016 presidential election.2 Democracies too try to influence foreign audiences via radio, television, and social media, though this is usually more overt, via official government accounts.3
The Middle East, however, might be especially prone to foreign influence operations.4 In addition to intense regional rivalries, the lack of free media in many countries and the distrust of government and institutions make the region conspiracy-prone.5 This tendency is backed by the widespread knowledge of actual historical conspiracies, including the 1953 Iranian coup that toppled Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the false pretext of the Suez Crisis in 1956, and myriad attempts by regional governments to weaken and overthrow one another.6 In addition, shared religious, historical, and linguistic ties, embodied in concepts such as pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism, create transnational bonds and foster vulnerabilities. It is easy for ideas to cross borders, and in so doing they can inspire, frighten, or subvert.
Several Middle Eastern governments are especially active in information campaigns, notably Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. They use a range of overt and clandestine disinformation tools to bolster their regimes, silence their critics, and weaken their rivals. Social media are particularly attractive venues for government propaganda. Sustaining social media operations...