International Journal of Internet Science

A peer reviewed open access journal for empirical findings, methodology, and theory of social and behavioral science concerning the Internet and its implications for individuals, social groups, organizations, and society.

The Internet in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC): Vehicle of Change
Taghreed M. Alqudsi-ghabra¹, Talal Al-Bannai², & Mohammad Al-Bahrani^3
1College of Social Sciences, Kuwait University, the State of Kuwait, ²Kuwait Fund for Economic Development, the State of Kuwait, ³Ministry of Communication, the State of Kuwait

Abstract: The Internet start was somewhat slow in the Middle East, but the twenty-first century witnessed its rapid spread across the Middle East, especially in the Arab countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, known as the AGCC. Even though these countries share political, geographic and economic commonalities, a level of observed and documented disparity exists among them. This paper is a comparative descriptive profile of the start of the Internet in the six countries of the AGCC, the laws and regulations that govern the flow and control of information, and how the spread of revolts affected the information flow in these countries. As changes in the Middle East are very much enabled by the Internet and its various tools, studies such as this one that attempt to organize scattered information are very important, timely, and needed.

Keywords: Internet, AGCC, Information control in AGCC, ICT infrastructure in AGCC

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