ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the current regulatory system of social media platforms through the events of the Arab Awakening, and through the lens of hybridity. It considers the role of community in activism, concluding that the difficulties of defining communities are not reduced by online interactions, but that these communities share some commonalities of more traditional offline communities. As cybrid entities and cybrid communities are now increasingly apparent, it is perhaps time to introduce a blended hybrid approach to regulating online social and political movements. A workable model of cybrid regulation would see key features of the largest online communities used to consider a system of regulation which interacts with the offline political spaces. Networked communitarianism, it is suggested, is much more reflective of the role both of those involved in the uprising – in person and online – and is also much more reflective of the role of the network – again, be it online or offline.
