Arab Spring: the first smartphone revolution

A file photo taken on Jan 19, 2011 shows a protester recording with his mobile phone a demonstration in central Tunis. Unfortunately for the pro-democracy movements, autocratic states have since caught up in the digital arms race, adding cyber surveillance, online censorship and troll armies to their arsenals. — AFP

NICOSIA: Social media and smartphones briefly gave youthful Arab Spring protesters a technological edge that helped topple ageing dictatorships a decade ago as their revolutionary spirit went viral.

Regimes across North Africa and the Middle East were caught flat-footed as the fervour of the popular uprisings spread at the speed of the Internet via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.