In the Middle East, from the perspective of early 2005, the age of the old patriarchs seems to be nearing its end, and the new media – satellite television, mobile phones, the Internet – are often regarded as having precipitated this development by undermining governments’ hegemonic control over the flow of information. The use of the Internet in the Arab world, however, is not very widespread, except among the younger, educated elites, where the Internet is increasingly a fact of life, and rapidly becoming an important factor in socialization. Two features are characteristic of the Arabic corner of the Internet: First, religion has greater weight than anywhere else in the world, and second, Arab users are particularly eager to engage in discussion – not least of politics, religion, and sex. In both domains, a growing assertion of the individual as an active speaker and decision-maker, not merely a passive recipient of authoritative discourse, is apparent. However, at present the Internet serves more clearly to extend one’s private sphere than decisively to strengthen civil society vis-à-vis the state . Civil society groups do of course use the Net to facilitate and accelerate their external contacts and internal coordination and to reinforce their public visibility. For a broader and more effective domestic mobilisation via the Internet, however, the user base remains too small, representing less than 10% of the Arab population. As for reaching publics at home, the Internet lags far behind other means of communication. However, in tandem with others (satellite TV, youth culture, and the “globalization” of consumer products, social networks, and ideational configurations), the Internet is one factor creating a dynamic of change that is helping to erode the legitimacy of traditional authority structures in terms of family, society, culture/religion, and also the state, thus creating pressure for reform. Young people are claiming “private” spaces of freedom that are influencing their social attitudes. In the wake of this process, ideas on the relations between state, society, and the individual that have been generally accepted for generations are changing, and the Internet is the medium in which such change is often most vigorously expressed.