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Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt
Social media companies have become dominant over their users. With digital capabilities that enable them to monitor, analyze and process users’ data, they are able to restrict users’ activities in accordance with their own policies. The present study examines the potential for users to encounter soc...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2022
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| _version_ | 1867613421974847488 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Refaei, Dina |
| author_browse | Refaei, Dina |
| author_facet | Refaei, Dina |
| author_sort | Refaei, Dina |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Social media companies have become dominant over their users. With digital capabilities that enable them to monitor, analyze and process users’ data, they are able to restrict users’ activities in accordance with their own policies. The present study examines the potential for users to encounter social media policies – specifically, privacy and content moderation policies imposed over activities on these platforms. The surveillance culture model is proposed to highlight surveillance perceptions among users and determine the factors that might affect users' intention to resist social media policies. A sample of 547 Egyptian social media users were surveyed. The findings showed that aware of relevant laws does not influence the user's perception of privacy on social media platforms. Instead, users assume that social media are monitoring their activities online for commercial purposes and to increase profits. While the majority were not subjected to the consequences of perceived policy violation, they are uncomfortable being surveilled. Further, perceptions of the reasons behind surveillance were found as a strong determinant of users’ concerns. Moreover, the findings highlight that an awareness or perception of surveillance does not relate to mitigating behaviors by users to resist or neutralize the effects of surveillance on them. Rather, social media surveillance is considered more as a pervasive phenomenon. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3037 |
| institution | American University in Cairo (Egypt) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:35:53.165Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| publisherStr | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| spelling | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-3037 Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt Refaei, Dina Social media companies have become dominant over their users. With digital capabilities that enable them to monitor, analyze and process users’ data, they are able to restrict users’ activities in accordance with their own policies. The present study examines the potential for users to encounter social media policies – specifically, privacy and content moderation policies imposed over activities on these platforms. The surveillance culture model is proposed to highlight surveillance perceptions among users and determine the factors that might affect users' intention to resist social media policies. A sample of 547 Egyptian social media users were surveyed. The findings showed that aware of relevant laws does not influence the user's perception of privacy on social media platforms. Instead, users assume that social media are monitoring their activities online for commercial purposes and to increase profits. While the majority were not subjected to the consequences of perceived policy violation, they are uncomfortable being surveilled. Further, perceptions of the reasons behind surveillance were found as a strong determinant of users’ concerns. Moreover, the findings highlight that an awareness or perception of surveillance does not relate to mitigating behaviors by users to resist or neutralize the effects of surveillance on them. Rather, social media surveillance is considered more as a pervasive phenomenon. 2022-08-20T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2002 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3037/viewcontent/dina_refaei_mohamed_mohamed_ali_thesis_800180500_For_Submission___1__1.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain social media policies privacy policies content moderation surveillance culture resistant. Communication Technology and New Media Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration |
| spellingShingle | social media policies privacy policies content moderation surveillance culture resistant. Communication Technology and New Media Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Refaei, Dina Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title | Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title_full | Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title_fullStr | Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title_full_unstemmed | Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title_short | Surveillance Culture and Potential Resistance of Social Media in Egypt |
| title_sort | surveillance culture and potential resistance of social media in egypt |
| topic | social media policies privacy policies content moderation surveillance culture resistant. Communication Technology and New Media Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration |
| url | https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2002 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/3037/viewcontent/dina_refaei_mohamed_mohamed_ali_thesis_800180500_For_Submission___1__1.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT refaeidina surveillancecultureandpotentialresistanceofsocialmediainegypt |