Social Media Insights from the Middle East in 2023

This report examines social media trends and developments across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during 2023, the twelfth annual study in a series that began in 2012. Drawing on analysis of over 100 sources, including industry reports, academic studies, news media coverage, platform announcements, and social media posts, the research documents how social media platforms, practices, and policies evolved across one of the world's most dynamic digital landscapes during a particularly consequential year. The study reveals three overarching themes that characterized 2023: accelerated platform innovation and regional partnerships, with Meta, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok launching new services and creator tools tailored to MENA markets; intensified concerns about social media's impact on youth wellbeing and addiction, highlighted by the Arab Youth Survey 2023 finding that nearly three-quarters of young people struggle to disconnect from social media; and heightened scrutiny of social media's role in spreading misinformation and facilitating government surveillance, particularly following the October 2023 outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The study provides a detailed analysis of major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), examining user demographics, market penetration, platform innovations, and commercial developments. Key findings include: the UAE ranking first globally for average number of social media platforms used monthly (8.3); seven of the ten biggest global markets for TikTok (by population percentage) being in the Middle East; and social media advertising in the region reaching $3.4 billion in 2023, representing over half of total digital ad spending. The findings have significant implications for understanding digital communication in complex geopolitical environments, platform governance in authoritarian contexts, and the intersection of commercial technology platforms with freedom of expression, misinformation, and state surveillance. The research documents a region where social media simultaneously serves as a space for creative expression, commercial opportunity, political organizing, and social connection, even as platforms face mounting pressures to address content harms, protect user privacy, and navigate competing demands across dramatically different political and cultural contexts.