A brief description of the Arab Spring and the August riots and the role social media took in these events.

1. The Arab Spring and
The August Riots: An
Insider’s Guide.
By James Kirk

2. What Was The Arab Spring?
• The “Arab Spring” is the term given to the surge of pro-
democracy activism across the Middle East and North Africa
particularly in the spring of 2011.
• Political dissent was witnessed in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria
and Yemen. Although by now most countries are experiencing
transitional phases in the process, violent displays of
oppression are still widespread, especially in Syria.
• It is social media’s use during these revolutions that interest
me greatly and I intend to discover how it encourage and
promoted democratic practice.

3. Social Media Use Within the
Arab Spring
• Taylor (2011), claims that the Arab Spring truly was a social media revolution. Quoting
Professor Phillip Howard, she states that “Our evidence suggests that social media
carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and
the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising”
She then goes to say that “Ironically, says Howard, government efforts to crack down
on social media may have incited more public activism, especially in Egypt. People
who were isolated by efforts to shut down the internet, mostly middle-class Egyptians,
may have gone to the streets when they could no longer follow the unrest through
social media.”
• These quotes suggest that social media facilitated a great deal of dissent towards the
Egyptian government and in essence gave the Egyptian people a platform to mobilize
and organize their political activism. By trying to control the internet and social media
President Mubarak’s regime provoked social media users, often middle class
Egyptians, into sacrificing their anonymity and beginning more forceful action against
the government.
• Evidence for the use of social media in other Arabic states is sparse and leads me to
believe that the Egyptian revolution will be the most lucrative area for me to study in
relation to the use of social media during the Arab Spring.

4. What Were the August Riots?
• The “August Riots”, were a period of civil unrest within London
and other major English cities. The riots began on the evening
of the 6th August following the shooting of Mark Duggan by
armed police in the Tottenham area of London. A group of
youths clashed with the police and the civil unrest soon
escalated into widespread arson, vandalism and looting.
• Following this level of criminality, copycat incidents were
witnessed in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol.
• The chaos was concluded on the 10th August with a greater
police presence in major English cities deterring further
crimes.

5. Social Media Use Within the
August Riots
• During the riots both Facebook and Twitter occupied dual
roles, in a sense serving the community and yet contributing
to the unrest. Bright (2011) furthers this claim beginning by
saying that its was the Twitter feed which provided the
community with the most up to date account of what was
happening, calling the BBC news coverage “incapable of
keeping up with the changing situation”. Although unverified it
seems twitter was assisting the community in providing them
the most contemporary information.
• The use of Facebook and Twitter to organize rioting and
looting is well documented and so presents social media as a
tool for destructive purposes, it wasn’t long before
government officials were using it as a scapegoat for the civil
disobedience.

6. Conclusion
• It seems social media’s activities during both the Arab Spring
and the August Riots were widespread and well documented.
However, it doesn’t seem as black and white as I first
theorised.
• Its obvious that social media offered a platform for political
activism during the Arab spring, particularly in Egypt. But to
paint it as a destructive tool for its role in the August riots has
become apparently naïve to me.
• I shall proceed by refining my focus to the Egyptian political
revolution and social media’s role within that. In regards to the
August riots it seems that social media possessed a duality I
was unaware of at first, it is this quality that I will focus on.

7. References
• TAYLOR,K(2011) Arab Spring really was a social media
revolution [WWW] Velum Media.
http://www.tgdaily.com/software-features/58426-arab-
spring-really-was-social-media-revolution [15/02/2012].
• BRIGHT, P (2011) How the London riots showed us two sides of
social networking [WWW] Available from:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/the-two-
sides-of-social-networking-on-display-in-the-london-riots.ars
[15/02/2012].