The net effect: Is the internet really vital to contemporary protest?

2011 is bringing dramatic political developments in a growing list of Arab states, including Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Egypt, where mass demonstrations are challenging authoritarian regimes. The media has associated the internet with all these protests but in Egypt the internet was cut off for six days on day three of the 18-day protest leading to the unseating of President Mubarak. So is the internet really vital to contemporary protest, or is the ‘net effect’ insignificant?

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