Facebook Loses Traffic in Middle East

Adoption of Facebook by citizens of the Middle East started increasing prior to the Arab Spring. But in the wake of the protests, that number spiked upward dramatically. This month, however, the region “has lost thousands if not hundreds of thousands of users in some key countries,” according to Inside Facebook.

Of the nineteen Middle Eastern countries they track, seven have declined over the last month, some precipitously.

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Qatar has declined the most, losing -%28.4 of its users; followed by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates at -%6.7 and -%6.5 respectively. Saudi Arabia has lost -%5.58 percent of its Facebook users, Bahrain -%4.8, Oman -%4.1 and Palestine -%3.1.

Saudi Arabia’s is the most surprising decline, as it was, prior to this, the biggest gainer. But Saudi Arabia has had an animus against Facebook and has recently, inspired by the Arab World’s protests, cracked down on online freedoms. The kingdom has lost 238,000 in the last month, retaining a total of 3.86 million.

Inside Facebook notes many of the losing countries – Oman, Bahrain (whom Saudi Arabia assisted in putting down their protesters), UAE, Kuwait and Qatar – border the influential kingdom.

Many of Egypt’s citizens credit the social network in making their revolution possible, or at least easier to arrange. So it’s not a big surprise that Egypt tops the list of gainers, at %8.2, followed by Pakistan at %6.7 and Morocco at %5.5.

The MENA region as a whole retained a %2.9 gain.

Sign photo by Monasosh

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