ABSTRACT
The use of social media in the Middle East is undisputed after the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt, both staged early in the first two months of 2011. The organizations of protests in both countries via Twitter and Facebook, as well the prominent role of Egyptian Google executive Wael Ghonim as the face of the Egyptian revolution, brought to bear the unmistakable fact that social media are not just for entertainment but can be adapted to the needs of any population by the common decisions of their users. Yet Facebook does not have binary justifications: it is not only a tool for coed commiseration in Europe and North American or a popular uprising vehicle in the Middle East and North Africa. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain have the highest penetration per total population of Facebook users in the Middle East (Dubai School of Government, 2011, p. 17) and there is very little social unrest or political disaffection in these emirates.
