Inside the Arab internet

The level of Arabic content on the web remains low despite significant growth in the number of Arab users. But who are those users and what is that content? Omar Khalifa takes a look.

Before I started writing this article, I had to do my research. I wanted to know the degree of internet penetration in the Arab world, the percentage of Arabic content on the web, and the approximate number of Arab internet users. Needless to say, all the reliable information and references I found were in English.

If we set the start date of internet popularity at 1990, we’ll find that Arabs weren’t far behind in adopting this technology. Egypt and Morocco arrived first in 1994, followed by other Arab states before the millennium. And finally Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, in 2000. It seemed that the technical difficulties and the lack of infrastructure that kept Arab countries behind were beginning to disappear as governments grasped the inevitability of this revolutionary technology. In 2005, only 8 per cent of Arab populations were online. By 2014, the number had jumped to a whopping 41 per cent.

However, the growth in Arabic content on the web didn’t match the increase in Arab internet users. Usergenerated content aside, most reliable statistics put Arabic content on the web somewhere between 0.8 per cent and 1 per cent. But who are those users and what is that content?

Arab internet users span all possible demographics – gender, religion, age, income level, employment status and education. Factors such as the availability of cheap hardware, connectivity through various media and the user- friendliness of social media websites have all contributed to the rapid increase in internet users. They’re everywhere on blogs, message boards, social media websites and photo sharing applications. And just as it is the case everywhere in the world, the Arab presence on the internet has mirrored communities with all their vice and virtue – and the vice has been amplified by the online disinhibition effect entrenched in the ano- nymity and invisibility that the internet provides.

Arabs have carried their complex nature to the web. In societies characterised by a deep polarisation in religious belief, a rooted political division and an animosity towards all that did not conform to tradition and scripture, it wasn’t a tall order navigating the web looking for websites or usergenerated content that demonised this or that segment of society. And bearing in mind the poor state of Arab research and documentation, in addition to the prevailing political turmoil over many decades – maybe even centuries – it was indeed a tall order trying to find balanced and impartial input about strictly Arab topics.

A simple comparison between Arabic and English Wikipedia articles about Arab history, geography and politics will deliver the message. Click on the ‘talk’ page tab on any Arab Wikipedia article dealing with a sensitive issue – such as the Lebanese Civil War or the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état – and you’re liable to see what quickly degenerates into a fight rather than a rational debate. The same goes for Arabic Facebook pages, of which there must be tens of thousands, and in which internet phenomena such as flaming, cyberbullying and trolling aren’t uncommon. The same goes for YouTube, where an Egyptian atheist has been posting videos since early 2010, and whose video comment t hreads are quite the place to learn Arabic profanities.

For the most part, Arabic websites aren’t any better. News websites, for example, are politicised according to the ideologies of those who run them with misleading headlines and a mixing of news and opinion. Also, most Arab governmental websites offer no real online services or application of e-government technology, except in the cases where governmental processes and tasks were changed to accommodate electronic transactions and delivery of information. And this is restricted to certain Gulf states.

As for the businesses that market their products and services in Arabic, they’re struggling to overcome the l i nguistic l i mitations imposed by the significant differences between versions of colloquial Arabic used in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco. There are examples of good online marketing by Arab companies but that marketing is done in English.

And let’s not talk about forums – which remarkably and sadly are the only source of information on many topics – with their billion pop- ups and irritating browsing experience. Multimedia piracy is also in a poor state with a thousand clickbaits and phishing links paving your way to download a movie in poor quality.

The only area in which I believe Arabic content is of significant quality and effect is Twitter. Before, during and after the Arab Spring young Arab activists from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf have practically demonstrated how hashtags and Tweets can save lives during clashes with riot police. They have expertly utilised social media tools in campaigning, spreading a message or supporting a cause.

The problem with Arabic content on the web is that many Arabs have found in the internet a tool to augment their preconceived opinions, rather than a free and open source of information. There are great examples here and there of significant effort and dedication. However, such examples are frail before the tidal waves of those who want to impose their ideology by fair means or foul.