Digital duels in the global public sphere: social media in civil society and military operations

Reflection on the role of social media in social movements, conflicts in civil society and military operations. While acknowleging the use of the digital media as a form of cyber warfare by groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban to good effect against ISAF in Afghanistan, the authors suggest that in fact social media may well prove to be a very disruptive technology for non-democratic regimes. People all over the world have discovered the possibilities of Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and the internet in general. This includes the people who feel oppressed in Arabic countries such as Tunisia and Egypt and who have made the Arabic Spring into a true digital revolution