Arab Spring: the first smartphone revolution November 29, 2020 at 05:22PM

Social media and smartphones briefly gave youthful Arab Spring protesters a technological edge that allowed them to topple ageing dictatorships as their revolutionary spirit went viral. Regimes across North Africa and the Middle East were caught flat-footed a decade ago as the fervour of the popular uprisings spread at the speed of the internet via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.