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Essay / Arab Social Media and the Arab Spring - 1270
In fact, there are many political differences in Arab nations despite having the same language and religion. According to Hassan in “Social Media and the Arab Spring,” the Arab Spring was the first time in Arab history that “all Arabs were able to experience a single world, a world without borders, without limits nor censorship” (5). Social media encouraged protesters without borders to engage in the uprisings despite the limited time they had to plan them. According to Mourtada and Salem, 88% of Egyptians get their information via social networks (9). As a result, during the Arab Spring, the estimated number of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square, Egypt increased from 250,000 (as of January 31, 2011) to nearly 1,000,000 (as of February 1, 2011) and continued to grow in the following days. (Storck 24). According to data from a project on information technology and political Islam led by Howard, Aiden, Deen, Muzammil, Will and Marwa, over four days, from May 16 to 20, 2011, the most important videos loaded on YouTube with the keyword “Egypt” received nearly 2,127,384 million views (29). Social media played a huge role in mobilizing