Middle East is the hot-spot for budding influence campaigns, aided by private firms
Over the past decades, the progression of technology and social media has modified the influence channels in the Middle East. The democratic campaigners in the province were the first to opt for social media platforms to run influence campaigns as a weapon to spread their agenda. And, in view of their victories, other nations started following the same model of utilizing the power of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to achieve goals.
Social media has become a regular tool of nations like Middle Eastern countries to run campaigns against their rivals as they are comparatively low-priced and huge impact. Influencing users with the help of these platforms is an inexpensive way to reach large audiences.
For a very long time, Middle Eastern countries had indulged themselves in misinformation activities. They have been taking help from both domestic and foreign firms to run influence campaigns.
For instance, a contract was signed between UAE and Switzerland’s Cyber intelligence firm Pluteos AG worth millions of dollars to run an influential campaign in Europe against Qatar.
Another instance is of Saudi Arabia which developed a virtual army to harass rebellious journalist like Jamal Khashoggi on Twitter. According to the report of the New York Times, The efforts to attack the expert’s social media service included an alleged spy and a so-called troll farm based in Riyadh within twitter that the realm utilized to scrutinize user accounts.
On December 20, 2019 Twitter announced the removal of 88,000 accounts managed by Smaat, a digital marketing company based in Saudi Arabia, and attributed thousands of these accounts to involvement in “a significant state-backed information operation”.Smaat is notable in part because it was co-founded by Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), a Saudi agent of the royal family who recruited two Twitter employees to spy on the accounts of critics of the Saudi government. Almutairi is now wanted by the FBI.
Last year, Iran was accused of snooping in Scottish Parliamentary elections for disseminating misinformation virtually. It had been meant to support the Independent parties and Sabotage the image of the UK. Also, the 2016 misinformation campaign of Iran against the U.S came into the limelight as their influential efforts have impacted operations against ISIS and scarce U.S. troops.
In 2020, Qatar was found in running influential disinformation campaigns against its adversaries. The country actively operated propaganda against UAE and Israel’s historic normalization agreement, moderated by the United States. Qatar’s pro-government newspaper- Al- Sharq misconceived the treaty, highlighting Palestinian indignation and scattering the UAE criticisms.
Qatar also ran propaganda against opponents with on cases linking to the FIFA (International Football Federation Association) and the attack of pro-Emirati journalists and lobbyists such as Ghanem Nuseibeh’s Cornerstone Global with the help of Italian consultant-journalist Paolo Fusi.
Talking about last year, the Israeli- Palestinian difference got viral on social media. As fighting between Israel and Palestinian activists mounted on the ground, the TikTok app has become a round-table for airing tensions.
In this modern age of the 21st century, Social Media plays an important role to spread the news all over the Globe. It is the easiest way to create an impact in the mindset of the people. Middle Eastern nations make social media “the most influential” way to run misinformation campaigns against their adversaries. Also, it leads to leaving a footprint among the people by targeting their way of thinking and by making them believe what they are saying are truths.
