Digital platforms have empowered individuals and communities to re-negotiate long-established notions of religion and authority. A new generation of social media influencers has recently emerged in the Muslim world. They are western-educated, unique storytellers, and savvy in digital media production. This raises new questions on the future of Islam in the context of emerging challenges, such as the openness of technology and the often-perceived closedness of religious and cultural systems within Muslim societies. This paper uses a multiple case research design to examine the roles of social media influencers in reimagining Islam and reshaping spiritual beliefs and religious practices among young people in the Gulf Region, the Arab world, and beyond. We used thematic analysis of the Instagram and YouTube content of four social media influencers in the Gulf Region: Salama Mohamed and Khalid Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmad Al-Shugairi from Saudi Arabia, and Omar Farooq from Bahrain. The study found that social media influencers are challenging traditional religious authorities as they reimagine Muslim identities based on a new global lifestyle.

This article explores the complex process of media reforms in political transition in Morocco. A key concern questions the extent to which the media reforms represent a break with the past and are aligned with the stated democratisation ambitions of the state, or alternatively, represent an illustration of the cyclical fluctuation that has characterised the government–media relationship and freedoms of expression and information in general for the past two decades, and which reflects a deeper ambivalence at the core of Moroccan governance of the media. The article provides an account of why the media structure is an uneven playing field with the state having the upper hand.

The article explores the extent to which the future of democracy in Morocco is healthier with the Internet as the primary means by which people create a public sphere where they communicate and form public opinion. A study on digital media in Morocco was carried out to examine the emergence of new media platforms and the impact of digitization on democracy and journalists’ activity. The study relies on in-depth interviews with digital activists and online journalists. The study found that the Internet had created a dynamic and networked public space where lively debates can take place on many issues still considered off-limits to mainstream media. It has also been used as a tool for nascent political movements to organize and mobilize supporters across the country, particularly in the context of the ongoing Arab Spring. Morocco was spared from the draconian measures used in other authoritarian countries and the Internet was relatively free. The February 20 Movement in 2011, the Amina Filali campaign in 2012, the Daniel Gate case in 2013 and the Free Ali Anouzla campaign are all significant moments of victory that relied on social media for political mobilization. However, with the surveillance technology available and its use justified (since the most democratic countries such as the United States and France use it), the state is clamping down on Internet freedom. In the past, the government controlled the online information landscape through a series of restrictive laws that can be manipulated to serve political purposes. Today, activists and journalists identify surveillance as the most dangerous instrument in the hands of the regime. The regime has learned to use the empowering potential of the Internet to serve its own repressive agenda.

As elsewhere in the world, Arab news websites depend on revenue streams built on the commercialization of social media platforms. Reliance on these platforms has created a major structural shift in news production, distribution and monetization, which has triggered serious concerns about fake news, misinformation and quality journalism. This paper investigates the extent to which four online-only news websites abide by quality journalism in the context of increasing platformization of digital news production. We use qualitative document analysis to systematically analyse the contents of a representative sample from four news websites from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.