"The gap between Arab governments and internet activists is widening day after day," the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) says in a report issued last week.

The report includes useful information about the current state of play between the authorities and internet users in almost all the Arab countries. It also has a section on Arab internet activists' tools: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

The first decade of the 21st century has certainly seen a growth in Arab regimes' efforts to regulate internet use, along with efforts to circumvent them. 

Although the restrictions are often oppressive, there is an air of desperation about them and they probably do little more than give the authorities a fragile sense of reassurance. But as the ANHRI points out, "Now that the snowball is rolling, it can no longer be stopped."
The choice for Arab regimes is a stark one. If they embrace the IT revolution wholeheartedly they risk seeing their power trickle away. If they don't embrace it, their country is in danger of being left behind. For the time being, they are mostly sitting on the fence. ANHRI says:

A few Arab governments are striving to catch up with this technological revolution and become associated with it, such as the UAE and Kuwait. However, the aspiration of these governments is to increase the number of websites or increase their content. They miss that the technological revolution is measured by the change induced in society at cultural, and political, social and economic level.

Eventually, though, something will have to give. ANHRI quotes a RAND Institute study: 

The information revolution is not a game where you can pick and choose ... The fundamental part of the information revolution, the indispensable part, is freedom of expression, exchange of information and a universal access to information.