The growth of Internet usage in the Middle East and North Africa is among the world’s
fastest: between 2000 and 2007 usage increased almost 500 percent, more than twice
the rate of increase in the rest of the world. Just as elsewhere, this has led to Middle
Eastern cyber-optimism - among the users of digital tools and Internet watchers alike.
It is a widely-held hope that the coming of Web 2.0 can move closed societies towarddemocratic values and governance.
