• ISBN13: 9781474453967
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Politics and Current Affairs
• Publisher: Edinburgh UP
• Publisher Imprint: Edinburgh
• Publication Date: April 16, 2019
• Pages: 288
• Original Price: GBP 28.99
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 452 grams

About the Book On January 28 2011 WikiLeaks released documents from a cache of US State Department cables stolen the previous year. <em>The Daily Telegraph</em> in London published one of the memos with an article headlined 'Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising'. The effect of the revelation was immediate, helping set in motion an aggressive counter-narrative to the nascent story of the Arab Spring. The article featured a cluster of virulent commentators all pushing the same story: the CIA, George Soros and Hillary Clinton were attempting to take over Egypt. Many of these commentators were trolls, some of whom reappeared in 2016 to help elect Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. This book tells the story of how a proxy-communications war ignited and hijacked the Arab uprisings and how individuals on the ground, on air and online worked to shape history.