“Deception can be, and often is, insidious. While conventional weaponry can scar, and create enduring traumas, deception can alter perceptions that dictate behaviours and choices for months, decades or even generations,” warns Marc Owen Jones in his new book Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation and Social Media. Delving into the strange and often unbelievable cyber world of subterfuge, Digital Authoritarianism seeks to understand how Gulf state actors weaponize social media to police dissent, crackdown on potential revolutionary currents and demonise regional …