Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media

Marc Owen Jones — Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar and one of the field's leading researchers on Gulf state information operations — delivers in this book the definitive account of how Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and their allies have developed sophisticated digital influence operations to suppress dissent, discredit opponents, and shape narratives both domestically and internationally. Jones combines social network analysis, bot detection methodologies, and deep regional expertise to document specific campaigns with unusual precision.

The book is important for the field for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that state-sponsored information operations are not a Russian or Chinese monopoly — authoritarian governments across the Middle East have developed significant capabilities and have deployed them against journalists, activists, and political opponents globally, including in Western countries. Second, Jones's methodology — combining computational social science with qualitative regional expertise — provides a model for how influence operations research should be conducted. Reviewed by Foreign Affairs as essential and widely cited in human rights and information integrity research, this is one of the most rigorous regional studies in the field.