The Gulf countries lag behind other Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in Internet liberalization. This study supports the idea that there is an important relation between the impact the Internet can have on democratization and civil liberties on the one hand, and governmental stances towards liberalization of the telecommunications infrastructure and competition in services on the other. The paper empirically verifies the relation between Internet diffusion and the voice and accountability indicator of the Kaufman, Kraay, and Mastruzzi governance index in its sample of 44 countries belonging to three regions including MENA. It identifies persisting MENA issues, such as abuses of dominance by the incumbent operator in the access market, and how content control policies have constrained the impact of the Internet on civil liberties. It suggests that liberalization is playing an important role in changing the levels of civil liberties by increasing the quality and quantity of information accessed.
