Political satire, Internet surveillance, and user empowerment: A story of a remix clip from the Middle East

Internet users in the Middle East and North Africa exercise a great deal of self-censorship when they participate in Web forums where they discuss sensitive matters, especially political and social issues.

The story of a very popular remix provides us with a preliminary investigation into the impact of the different modes of online surveillance and censorship on the users' online behavior and how that behavior is influenced by the users' awareness of obtrusive surveillance.

The remix, which has been widely circulated in online forums and video haring Web sites, depicts a group of Arab leaders as obedient students in the U.S. administration school. The clip shows U.S. officials, mainly U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as instructors in the classroom and uses a hit children's song by the glamorous Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram. While it is unclear who produced the clip it is obvious that it was released to coincide with Secretary Rice's visit to the Middle East to prepare for a peace conference between the Israelis and Palestinians.

To fully appreciate the clip, first see the original Arabic video with English subtitles, then see the remix, also with English subtitles as it appeared on Aljazeera English.

The production and circulation of this remix among Arab Internet users highlights two main issues.

First, it shows how the Internet empowered Arab users who live in heavily-censored societies not only to access content deemed offensive by the political regimes, but also how the Internet enabled citizens to produce and widely disseminate fairly sophisticated political satire, the matter which was almost impossible prior to the introduction of the Internet. The clip, which by western standards is nothing mort than a peaceful political expression similar to that produced by Web sites such as JibJab, is in fact perceived as so daring that it can result in possible prosecution by repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.

The other issue this clip illustrates is how surveillance and monitoring of Web sites affect the online behavior of Internet users in the Arab societies. The clip and links to the clip appeared in many popular Web forums only to disappear shortly thereafter. Many Web forum participants in sites such as UAE4ever, Saudi in Focus, and Egypt Forum, panicked when they saw the clip and recommended removing it and deleting any external links to it. The reason given was always "so that the forums are not shutdown by authorities or blocked by ISPs." This form of self-censorship is prevalent and indicates that users are cognizant of different modes of online surveillance and the possible consequences of their activities. This is not surprising given that Web administrators and contributors were arrested and held responsible for content that was anonymously posted in countries such as Oman, UAE, and Kuwait.

Internet users however, manage to alter their online behavior in producing, using and sharing sensitive content. In the case of this remix as is the case with other sensitive content, users posted the clip on high profile video sharing Web sites which many regimes try not to block in order to avoid the negative publicity such a block would creat and pressure from advocacy groups. The UAE for example, had to unblock access to YouTube after tremendous pressure from local online communities.

Users who live in countries that care less about user community pressure and advocacy groups utilize different techniques to access and distribute sensitive content. In Saudi Arabia, for example, users cannot access the remix on YouTube because the site is blocked. However, users placed the clip in tens of Web sites that are invisible to the ISPs and distribute the link to trusted emails. (ONI prefers not to publicize such sites fearing possible repercussion against their operators).

As we mentioned in the Middle East and North Africa regional overview, this technique has been used to give online access to "The Girls of Riyadh," a popular novel by a Saudi writer after the Saudi authorities banned selling the hardcopy in the local market.

Users in the Middle East and North Africa not only mock the political authorities by producing and distributing such content, but they mock the surveillance efforts by using various techniques to defeat and protest censorship and surveillance. In some cases, the Internet has been used to multiply the effect of questionable content. In June 2006, when the Lebanese satellite channel LBC broadcast a satirical sketch of Hassan Nasrallah, the head Hizbullah, supporters of the militant group took to the streets protesting what they considered as outrageous and insensitive. The producer of the show had to apologize. However, Internet users posted the clip on a large number of video sharing sites including YouTube with English subtitles, to protest what they considered as an unacceptable form of censorship.

The story of the remix provides us with a brief look into the impact of the different modes of online surveillance and censorship on the users' online behavior and how that behavior is influenced by the users' awareness of obtrusive surveillance.

Many Internet users in the Arab world are vigilant when using the Internet to express their opinions, but at the same time they will exploit different possible means to circumvent the censorship.