Internet in the Arab World: A Catalyst for Power Shift

April 5, 2006

In a talk yesterday at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Helmi Noman  discussed how the Internet is creating an emerging information paradigm which democratizes access to information and liberates users from the control of content providers. These changes include ways in which the unprecedented access to information offered by the Internet empowers Arab Internet users and defies the social and political structures in the Arab world; issues surrounding state filtering systems; and the potential systemic changes which cyberspace will bring to real space in the Arab world.