Splicetoday

Digital
Mar 26, 2009, 06:14AM

The slow spread

Facebook gains momentum throughout the Middle East with the launch of an Arabic version.

When you think of "Students for Obama/McCain/Ron Paul," you don't think of anti-regime protests:

In the Middle East, where political expression is largely dominated by the state, the expansion of Facebook to Arabic-only speakers is a potentially big deal. Last year, Facebook’s largely censorship-free environment helped Egyptian activists organize anti-regime protests. This has caused some Arab regimes to crack down on the social networking site. Egyptian authorities arrested and roughed up the creator of a Facebook group that promoted last year’s protest, while Syria has previously blocked all access to the site.

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