Social media is proving to be an important tool that people can use to demonstrate powerlessness against governments of oppressive nation-states—as we saw recently during President Trump's first Muslim ban when thousands of people took to Twitter to express solidarity with Muslims who are being persecuted because of their religion or ethnicity.
As an outlet to voice their grievances against oppressive regimes, social media has been a boon for many Middle Eastern and North African countries. Facebook helped spread the word about protests occurring across Tunisia during 2011's Jasmine Revolution through social networking sites.
In countries around the world, social media has become increasingly important to the government. For countries with high corruption rates, it provides a means to connect citizens and officials so that they can better understand each other's goals and needs.