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Abstract
Many of the studies of disinformation tend to reflect transatlantic security concerns,
and focus on the activities of Russia and China. There is notably less analysis of
disinformation in the Arabic-speaking world and wider MENA region. This article analyses
a number of MENA-based COVID-19 disinformation campaigns from 2020, highlighting how
COVID-19 disinformation has been instrumentalised by regional actors to attack rivals
or bolster the legitimacy of their own regimes. It highlights in particular how certain
‘superspreaders’ of disinformation tend to promote Saudi, Emirate and right wing US
foreign policy in the Middle East.
During the coronavirus pandemic, religious misinformation has been found on social media platforms causing fear, confusion, and polluting the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s online sphere. Exploring cases of religious clickbait in the form of false hadiths and viral religious advice from religious figures entrenched in the MENA’s political elite, this essay discusses how new dynamics for religion in the age of the Internet are contributing to a uniquely regional and religious form of misinformation. This essay looks at how the phenomenon of religious misinformation is a defining characteristic of the MENA’s online sphere, becoming even more acute during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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