Mohamad Najem

Technologist, activist

• Birthplace: Lebanon

Significance: Mohamad Najem is a Lebanese technologist who has started several organizations, most notably Social Media Exchange (SMEX), which are meant to help protect people’s freedom of speech online. Although he focuses most of his work in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, some of his work has impacted people’s technology use worldwide.

Background

Very little information is publicly available about Mohamad Najem’s early life. He is from Lebanon, a small country in the Middle East near Israel and Syria. Like much of the Middle East, Lebanon has seen various social and political tensions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

When Najem was a young man, a wave of change moved through much of the Middle East. This period would become known as the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations and protests that spanned many of the Arab countries of the Middle East starting in the early 2010s. Arab Spring began in the North African country of Tunisia and spread to Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain. Smaller but related protests took place in many other heavily Arab countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, and Kuwait.

The demonstrations began largely independently but soon inspired a widespread call for action to spread and strengthen. Some of the main grievances of the protestors included government corruption, oppressive social and political policies and leaders, and stagnant economies. Generally, people sought an end to old ways of government and the establishment of new systems they believed would better represent the needs of modern people and countries.

Life’s Work

Mohamad Najem made many important observations during the events of the Arab Spring. One observation that would change the course of his life had to do with social media. During the Arab Spring, protestors made extensive use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. Through social media, the protestors could explain their experiences, outline their concerns, and gather support for various causes. They could also use these tools to summon more people to join the protests—both locally and internationally.

Najem summarized the role of social media by saying that countries with limited democracy do not allow people to move about and speak freely in the real physical world. However, online tools such as social media platforms offered people almost unlimited options for expressing their ideas. Najem and many others consider social media as an important reason why the Arab Spring spread so fast and achieved its successes.

However, the successes of Arab Spring were short-lived. In the coming years, many governments in the Middle East began to rebuild their controlling influence over their people. Government leaders recognized the important role online tools and social media had played in the earlier uprisings. Subsequently, officials in many countries began creating policies that would limit, or even ban, citizens’ free speech online.

Most social media platforms are independent companies that can make many of their own decisions, and many people think social media is completely free of restriction. However, in reality, social media has to work closely with the rules of the country in which it is used, meaning a government or other authority has extensive abilities to limit the use of that technology.

To Najem, this restriction of free speech online was a crime against human rights and a way for repressive regimes to stay in power. Najem believed more protections were needed for people’s online free speech. He started a business called Social Media Exchange (SMEX), which he hoped would address this problem.

The goal of SMEX was to promote the use of internet resources such as social media among people in the Middle East, particularly women and others who are more likely to face restrictions. SMEX makes partnerships and pushes for products and programs that make online technology more available and accessible. It also trains people about online rights and practices, and encourages bloggers to post more information that could help promote freedoms.

Following the online speech crackdowns, SMEX also took a role in monitoring Middle Eastern governments’ online policies. It publicizes cases in which authorities try to repress speech that is controversial. It also deals directly with social media companies in questionable cases, such as when authorities claim that a particular posting should be banned for promoting terrorism, even when the post may only offer peaceful criticism of the government. Founded and based in Lebanon, SMEX focuses mostly on that country’s affairs but also coordinates efforts with others.

In the late 2010s, Najem used the SMEX setup to promote similar projects. One is Cyrilla, a database started in 2019 that lists and tracks all known global laws that could restrict free online expression. Since 2018, Najem has also hosted “Bread & Net,” a digital conference of hundreds of people concerned with digital free speech matters.

Impact

Mohamad Najem has become an important force in the protection of online free speech, particularly in the Arab world where many governments attempt to restrict what citizens may say or do. His organization, SMEX, and its offshoots such as Cyrilla and Bread & Net, seek to monitor and protect online rights in Lebanon, the Middle East, and beyond.

Bibliography

Hincks, Joseph. “A Decade After the Arab Spring, These Activists Are Finding New Ways to Fight for Progress.” TIME Magazine, 12 Jan. 2021, time.com/5926742/arab-spring-decade/. Accessed 7 July 2023.

“Mohamad Najem—Former Advisory Council / Advocacy and Policy Director, Social Media Exchange (SMEX).” Open Tech Fund / U.S. Agency for Global Media, www.opentech.fund/about/people/mohamad-najem/. Accessed 7 July 2023.

“Mohamad Najem.” LinkedIn, lb.linkedin.com/in/mohamad-najem-15182913. Accessed 7 July 2023.

“Mohamad Najem.” Wilson Center, www.wilsoncenter.org/person/mohamad-najem. Accessed 7 July 2023.

“Who We Are.” Social Media Exchange (SMEX), smex.org/who-we-are/. Accessed 7 July 2023.