Social media's role in Arab spring still unclear

Something extraordinary happened at the nexus of social media and political action during the Arab spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. But just what happened is less clear.

Certainly Twitter and other social media became a "megaphone" that disseminated information and excitement about the uprisings to the outside world, according to The George Washington University researchers who did a comprehensive study of Tweets about the Egyptian and Libyan uprisings between January and March. According to that study, more than 75 percent of people who clicked on embedded Twitter links related to the uprisings were from outside the Arab world. The number of people clicking on those links surged during major news events, especially during the run up to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation, the researchers said. The number of clicks from inside the Arab world was significantly smaller, but more sustained and less subject to the vicissitudes of the news cycle, they said.