LETTER FROM BEIRUT
A month ago, Clubhouse, the growing little app, took the Middle East by storm. In a few days, the latest nugget of Silicon Valley, an audio discussion platform, has gained its stripes in the overloaded market of Arab social networks. Insofar as it currently only works on iOS, its use is restricted to iPhone owners, that is to say to relatively affluent classes.
But in these circles, especially in Egypt and among the ultra-connected youth of the rich Gulf countries, the new app is developing at full speed. In mid-February, Clubhouse was the most downloaded social network on the App Store in Saudi Arabia.
While in France this live debate forum still has a very marked “tech” image – which means that there are many digital professionals there -, in the Middle East its followers come from more varied backgrounds.
A breathing space
For a simple reason: in these countries where social pressure and official censorship stifle dissenting voices and gag non-conforming opinions, Clubhouse constitutes a unique breathing space. In these virtual salons, where everyone can initiate a discussion on the topic of their choice, or join an ongoing conversation, Arabs are rediscovering the taste for free speech.
A large part of the subjects discussed on the network is not strictly controversial. We talk about psychology, music, travel, cooking, start-ups, literature, etc. We talk about everything and nothing, in a playful or learned tone.
“In the last few days, I have listened to a discussion with people from the Gulf, who were talking about the person who has marked them the most in their life, there were 400 participants, recounts a foreign resident of the United Arab Emirates, who is Arabist. And then I also followed a debate which flew very high, on Aristotle, with only ten people ”.
Sex, politics, religion
But of course, what makes a big part of Clubhouse’s appeal in the Arab world is the ability to cover everything that has been banned from the pages of newspapers, radio stations and television studios. The powers in place have not yet found a way to lock out this new network, the three great taboos of the region (sex, politics and religion) are openly discussed.
The highly sensitive theme of normalization with Israel, a step that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco took in 2020, often comes up in debates, for example. “I attended a conversation on this subject, with several hundred people from the Gulf, says Palestinian Dima Khatib, a journalist from Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar. All were against establishing diplomatic relations with Israel except one. This shows that the pro-normalization climate maintained on Twitter does not correspond to reality. ”
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