107 more than 500 million people, 40 percent of its total population

Matt Silverman, "China: The World"s Largest Online Population," Mashable, April 10, 2012; Jon Russell, "Internet Usage in China Surges 11%," USA Today, July 19, 2012.

108 to take to the Internet themselves in order to respond to public controversies

Lye Liang f.o.o.k and Yang Yi, EAI Background Brief No. 467, "The Chinese Leadership and the Internet," July 27, 2009, Dmitri Medvedev also felt the pressure to engage personally on the Internet

"Medvedev Believes Internet Best Guarantee Against Totalitarianism," Itar-Ta.s.s News Agency, July 30, 2012, four out of every ten Tunisians were connected to the Internet

Zahera Harb, "Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect," M/C Journal [Media/Culture Journal] 14, no. 2 (2011).

111 with almost 20 percent of them on Facebook

Ibid.

112 80 percent of the Facebook users were under the age of thirty

Ibid.

113 as censoring political dissent on the Internet

Reporters without Borders, "Enemies of the Internet," March 12, 2010, It was the downloaded video that ignited the Arab Spring

John D. Sutter, "How Smartphones Make Us Superhuman," CNN, September 10, 2012.

115 In Saudi Arabia, Twitter has facilitated public criticism

Robert F. Worth, "Twitter Gives Saudi Arabia a Revolution of Its Own," New York Times, October 20, 2012.

116 feisty and relatively independent satellite television channel Al Jazeera

Jon Alterman, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Middle East Notes and Comment, Center for Strategic and International Studies, March 2011; Heidi Lane, "The Arab Spring"s Three Foundations," per Concordiam, March 2012.

117 even in countries where they are technically illegal

Angelika Mendes, "Media in Arab Countries Lack Transparency, Diversity and Independence," Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, June 25, 2012, Lin Noueihed and Alex Warren, The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution and the Making of a New Era (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 50; Lane, "The Arab Spring"s Three Foundations."

118 the Internet had spread throughout Egypt and the region

Harb, "Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect"; Alterman, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

119 Al Jazeera and its many siblings were the more important factor

Alterman, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

120 "All that trouble from this little matchbox?"

"Special Report: Al Jazeera"s News Revolution," Reuters, February 17, 2011.

121 shut down access to the Internet in the way Myanmar and Iran had

Harb, "Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect."

122 the public"s reaction was so strong that the fires of revolt grew even hotter

Ibid.

123 including Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell, "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted," New Yorker, October 4, 2010.