The Arab spring and online protests in Iraq

This article traces the influence of the Arab Spring on Iraq as activists staged fervent protests against the corruption, sectarianism, and favoritism of Nouri Maliki's government. A group of young Iraqi intellectuals, journalists, students, government employees, and unemployed youth posted their plan to organize demonstrations against the government using social media in February 2011. This study investigates the use of Facebook and YouTube, which bypassed the government's attempt to limit the coverage of these protests. Indeed, the events during the Arab Spring in Iraq crossed sectarian lines and united Iraqis against the Shiite-dominated government. I examine the five most popular Facebook pages and more than 806 YouTube clips and their 2,839 comments related to the Iraqi Arab Spring. The study reveals that young Iraqi men between the ages of 25 and 30 were the most active bloggers, while those between the ages of 20 and 24 were the most active commentators during the protests. Iraqis living in the United States and Canada played an important role by posting YouTube clips and comments. A gender disparity was evident; Iraqi men posted more video clips and comments than women.