Marc Owen Jones
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About
Marc Owen Jones is an associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar. His research and teaching examine disinformation, digital authoritarianism, and political repression, with a particular focus on how transnational influence operations, harassment campaigns, and digital control mechanisms emerge from—or target—the Middle East.
He is the author of two single-authored monographs: Political Repression in Bahrain (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Deception, Disinformation, and Social Media (Hurst / Oxford University Press, 2022), the latter named among Foreign Affairs’ 2023 Books of the Year. He has also edited several influential volumes on Bahrain and the Gulf, including Bahrain’s Uprising (Zed Books, 2015) and Gulfization of the Arab World (Gerlach Press, 2018). His recent work includes a major single-authored essay in Daedalus (2025), which reflects on the ethics, risks, and epistemic challenges of researching disinformation, transnational repression, and digital authoritarianism in the post-truth age. Together, this body of work advances a socio-technically grounded and empirically driven account of how repression, propaganda, and power adapt to digital media systems.
Alongside his scholarly research, Jones is widely known for pioneering investigations into coordinated disinformation and harassment campaigns. His work has exposed networks of fake journalists, state-aligned bot operations targeting Western policymakers, and cross-platform influence efforts aimed at journalists, academics, and activists. His analysis of disinformation surrounding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was highlighted by The New York Times as its “Quote of the Day” in 2018, and his investigative research has been cited by Reuters, the BBC, the Guardian, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and other major outlets. In a separate case, his archival research led him to challenge the UK Foreign Office in a tribunal over withheld information relating to torture allegations in Bahrain during the 1970s.
Raised between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and having lived and worked in Sudan, Syria, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Jones brings a regionally grounded perspective to the study of media, power, and informational controls. He earned his PhD in Government and International Affairs from Durham University in 2016, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tübingen. He later joined the University of Exeter, where he transitioned from postdoctoral researcher to permanent lecturer, before serving from 2018 to 2024 as assistant and then associate professor of Middle East Studies and digital humanities at Hamad bin Khalifa University.
Jones is a frequent public commentator and columnist, with articles having appeared in The Washington Post, CNN, Time, The Independent, The New Statesman, Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera English, where he is a regular contributor. He also appears regularly on international broadcast media, including the BBC, NPR, LBC, and CBC News, discussing disinformation, digital repression, and global influence operations. His expertise has led to invited lectures at institutions such as Princeton University, the University of Oxford, New York University, and the London School of Economics, as well as consultancy roles with states, governments, and NGOs.
His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2016 Best Thesis Prize from the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies and the British Council’s UK Alumni Professional Achievement Award (Qatar) in 2021. He has also received several teaching awards at Exeter University and Hamad bin Khalifa University. In addition to his academic appointment, Jones is a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Council for Global Affairs, and was formerly on the Committee for Academic Freedom at the Middle East Studies Association.
Publications
Single-Authored Books
Jones, M.O. (2022). Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East. Oxford University Press/Hurst.
Jones, M.O. (2020). Political Repression in Bahrain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Special Issues & Edited Books Edited
Briant, E. L., & Jones, M. O. (2025). A century of propaganda studies: from pen and sword to surveillant smartphone. Critical Studies in Media Communication, pp. 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2025.2464184
Lysa, C., Hubail, F., & Owen Jones, M. (2024). Introduction: Reorienting the Gulf. Journal of Arabian Studies, 13(2), 223–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/21534764.2024.2382412, pp. 223–237. Q3
Sallam, H., Alemdaroğlu, A., Jones, M.O., & Schwartz, K. (Eds.) (2023). "Journalism and Activism in an Age of Transnational Repression." Middle East Report, Issue 307/308, Summer/Fall 2023. MERIP. https://merip.org/magazine/307-308/
Jones, M.O., Porter, R., & Valeri, M. (2018). Gulfization of the Arab World. Gerlach Press.
Jones, M.O., & Shehabi, A. (Eds.) (2015). The Bahrain Uprising. London: Zed Books Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
[Forthcoming] Jones, M.O. (2026). "Sectarianism Amplified: Deceptive Data, Anti-Shiʿa Bots, and the Ethics of Digital (In)Activism" International Journal of Middle East Studies [Roundtable] Q1
Jones, M.O. (2025). Lessons from the Digital Coalface in the Post-Truth Age: Researching the Middle East Amid Authenticity Vacuums, Transnational Repression & Disinformation. Daedalus 2025; 154 (2): pp. 132–156. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_02144 Q1
Jones, M. O. (2025). Evidencing alethocide: Israel's war on truth in Gaza. Third World Quarterly, pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2025.2462791 Q2
Lysa, C., Hubail, F., & Owen Jones, M. (2024). Introduction: Reorienting the Gulf. Journal of Arabian Studies, 13(2), 223–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/21534764.2024.2382412, pp. 223–237. Q3
Jones, Marc Owen. (2021/2). "State-aligned misogynistic disinformation on Arabic Twitter: The attempted silencing of an Al Jazeera journalist" Open Information Science, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 278-297. https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2020-0126, pp. 278-297. Q2
Jones, M. O. (2020). Disinformation superspreaders: the weaponisation of COVID-19 fake news in the Persian Gulf and beyond. Global Discourse, 10(4), pp. 431-437. https://doi.org/10.1332/204378920X16020074088784
Jones M.O. (2020). Digital De-Citizenship: The Rise of the Digital Denizen in Bahrain. International Journal of Middle East Studies. 52(4):740-747. https://doi:10.1017/S0020743820001038 [Roundtable] Q1
Jones, Marc Owen. (2019). The Gulf Information War| Propaganda, Fake News, and Fake Trends: The Weaponization of Twitter Bots in the Gulf Crisis. International Journal of Communication, [S.l.], v. 13, p. 27, mar. 2019. Pp. 1389 - 1415 https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8994
Jones, M. O. (2017). Satire, social media and revolutionary cultural production in the Bahrain uprising: From utopian fiction to political satire. Communication and the Public, 2(2), 136-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047317706372 Q4
Jones, M. O. (2017). Nation branding and celebrity diplomacy in Bahrain. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), 324–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2017.1312083 Q1
Jones, M.O. (2016). "Saudi Intervention, Sectarianism, and De-Democratization in Bahrain's Uprising", Protest, Social Movements and Global Democracy Since 2011: New Perspectives (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 39), pp. 251-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20160000039011 Q4
Jones, M.O. (2017). "Social Media, Surveillance and Social Control in the Bahrain Uprising", Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 9(2), 69-92. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.167 Q1
Peer-Reviewed Introductions & Short-Form Journal Pieces
Briant, E. L., & Jones, M. O. (2025). Introduction. A century of propaganda studies: from pen and sword to surveillant smartphone. Critical Studies in Media Communication, pp. 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2025.2464184
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Big Tech's Partnership with Authoritarianism." In Sallam, H., Alemdaroğlu, A., Jones, M.O., & Schwartz, K. (Eds.), Middle East Report, Issue 307/308, Summer/Fall 2023. https://merip.org/2023/09/big-techs-partnership-with-authoritarianism/
Jones, M.O. (2023). "The 'Bot-iful' Game: Football, Social Media Manipulation, and Transnational Gulf Politics." Politics of Sports in the Middle East. POMEPS. https://bit.ly/3QPxzoa
Jones, M.O. (2023). "The New, Unsustainable Order of Arab Digital Autocracy." Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. pp 101-112 https://bit.ly/4bB46rC
Jones, M.O. (2022). "The Two Faces of Digitalization in Politics: The Role of Social Networks in Political Mobilizations and the Threat of Digital Authoritarianism in the MENA Region." IEMed Mediterranean Yearbook 2022. pp. 90-95 https://bit.ly/4bwunr6
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Tracking Adversaries and First Responding to Disinfo Ops: The Evolution of Deception and Manipulation Tactics on Gulf Twitter." POMEPS, pp. 56-62. https://bit.ly/3QXKDYF
Jones, M.O. (2018, November). "How the Saudi Regime Silences Those Who Discuss the Khashoggi Affair Online." Jadaliyya and JadMag.
Jones, M.O., Shehabi, A., & Desmukh, F. (2016, December). "The IISS: The Myth and Ethics of Think-Tank Independence." Jadaliyya - جدلية.
Jones, M.O. (2016). "Automated Sectarianism and Pro-Saudi Propaganda on Twitter." Tactical Tech.
Book Chapters
[Forthcoming] Jones, M.O. (2026). "Data Ethnographies and Digital Harm", Southern Digitalities, University of Illinois Press.
[Forthcoming] Jones, M.O. (2026). "Disinformation and security in the Gulf" Contemporary Gulf Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer
[Forthcoming] Jones, M.O. (2026). Social Media Propaganda and the State–Non-State Nexus', The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, Routledge Handbook,
[Forthcoming] Jones, M.O. (2026). 'Disinformation and Foreign Policy in the GCC: From Digital Superpowers to Disynergies', Foreign Policy in the Gulf Disinformation, Bloomsbury/ib Tauris
Jones, M.O. (2025). How Do States and Non-state Actors Use Social Media for Deception and Disinformation?. In: Reuss, A., Stetter, S. (eds) Social Media and Peacebuilding. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73917-0_2 pp. 25-48.
Jones, M.O. (2025). "Civil actors under attack: Digital authoritarianism and the weaponization of social media." In Routledge Handbook of Conflict and Peacebuilding Communication. Routledge, https://DOI:10.4324/9781003392002-16 pp. 130-138.
Jones, M.O. (2024). "Deception Supply Chains in the Middle East, 2010–2023." In The Routledge Handbook on the Influence Industry. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003256878-13, pp. 167 - 182
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Media Assisted Authoritarianism Bahrain." Open Book Publishers, Spring 2021.
Jones, M.O. (2019). "Mapping Sectarian Slurs in the Middle East Twittersphere." In Politics in Transition. Koyo Shobo Publishers [Japan].
Jones, M., Porter, R., & Valeri, M. (2018). "Introduction." In Gulfization of the Arab World. Gerlach Press.
Jones, M.O. (2018). "Contesting the Iranian Revolution as a Turning-Point Discourse in Bahraini Contentious Politics." In Valeri, M., & Porter, R. (Eds.), Gulfization of the Arab World: Exeter Critical Gulf Series. Gerlach Press.
Jones, M.O. (2017). "Social Media in the Bahrain Uprising: From Hope to Despair." In Atanasova, D., Reilly, P., & Veneti, A. (Eds.), Politics, Protest, Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. PressBooks.
Jones, M.O. (2016). "Political History of Bahrain." In The Middle East and North Africa 2017. Oxford: Routledge.
Jones, M.O. (2016). "Social Media and Unethical P2P Diplomacy in the Bahrain Uprising." In Gunter, B., Al-Areshi, M., & Al-Jaber, K. (Eds.), Social Media and the Arab Uprisings. London: I.B. Tauris.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "Social Media, Surveillance, and Cyberpolitics in the Bahrain Uprising." In Jones, M.O., & Shehabi, A. (Eds.), Bahrain's Uprising. London: Zed Books.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "Rotten Apples and Rotten Orchards: Police Deviance, Brutality, and Unaccountability in Bahrain." In Jones, M.O., & Shehabi, A. (Eds.), Bahrain's Uprising. London: Zed Books.
Jones, M.O., & Shehabi, A. (Eds.) (2015). "Bahrain's Uprising: The Struggle for Democracy in the Gulf." In Jones, M.O., & Shehabi, A. (Eds.), Bahrain's Uprising. London: Zed Books.
Jones, M.O. (2008). "An Inconvenient Height Above Sea Level." In Lucantoni, P. (Ed.), Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language Workbook 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Impact: Select Op-eds and Analysis for Media Outlets
Jones, M.O. (2025). "The rise of the Emirati dis-influencers and why we all should be worried", Middle East Eye, December 2025
Jones, M.O. (2025). "Why Qatar lives rent-free in the far right's head". Al Jazeera English, December 2025
Jones, M.O. (2024). "Innocent Israelis, Bad Arabs? How the Media Scripted Amsterdam's Soccer Violence." Zeteo.com, Zeteo, 9 Nov. 2024,
Jones, M.O. (2024). "Israel is Carrying Out AI-Assisted Genocide in Gaza?" The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2024). "Fact or Fiction? Israel's evacuation plan for the Palestinians in Rafah." Al Jazeera English.
Jones, M.O. (2024). "The Qatar Plot: How a covert influence campaign helped Europe's far right." Al Jazeera English.
Jones, M.O. (2024). "Fact or Fiction: Israel Needs Fake Nurses to Justify Killing Gaza Babies." Al Jazeera English.
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Analysis: Why Is So Much Anti-Palestinian Disinformation Coming From India?" Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Fact or Fiction: The Propaganda War Won't Stop, Even During a Truce." Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2023, January). "Digital Surveillance in the Middle East." Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Fact or Fiction? Israeli Maps and AI Do Not Save Palestinian Lives." Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Israel's Comically Bad Disinfo Proves They're Losing PR War." The Daily Beast.
Jones, M.O. (2022). "Google's Ad on Amnesty's Apartheid Report Whitewashes Israel's Crimes." Middle East Eye.
Jones, M.O. (2022). "Why Elon Musk's Twitter Buyout Is Bad for the Middle East." The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2022). "Shireen Abu Akleh and Israel's Disinformation Playbook." The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2022). "UK Press Coverage of Qatar 2022 Reeks of Hypocrisy and Orientalism." The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2022). "When It Comes To Disinformation, America's Gulf Allies Are Worse Than the Russians." TIME Magazine, August.
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Candiru: Israel's New Spyware Supercharges Global Digital Authoritarianism." Middle East Eye.
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Pegasus: How Israel Supercharges Digital Authoritarianism." The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Tunisia Crisis Prompts Surge in Foreign Social Media Manipulation." Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2020). "Anatomy of a Disinformation Campaign: The Coup That Never Was." Al Jazeera.
Jones, M.O. (2019). "Saudi Trolls Hijacking Dead People's Twitter Accounts to Amplify Riyadh Propaganda." The New Arab.
Jones, M.O. (2019). "Saudi, UAE Twitter Takedowns Won't Curb Rampant Disinformation on Arab Twitter." Washington Post.
Jones, M.O. (2018). "A Plague of Twitter Bots Is Roiling the Middle East." Washington Post.
Jones, M.O. (2017). "From Geneva to London: How Bahrain Tries to Game Human Rights Accountability in the International Arena." Orient XXI.
Jones, M.O. (2017). "Hacking, Bots, and Information Wars in the Qatar Spat." Washington Post.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "Why Aren't the Gulf States Taking More Syrian Refugees?" New Statesman.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "The More Appalling the Human Rights Record, the Better the Customer at London's Arms Fairs." The Independent.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "The Deepening Divide in Post-Election Bahrain." LSE Blog.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "Banned from Entry to Bahrain." Pen Atlas.
Jones, M.O. (2015). "Bahrain's Uprising: Resistance and Repression in the Gulf [Book Summary]." Open Democracy.
Jones, M.O. (2014). "Bahrain's Celebrity Anti-Diplomacy." Your Middle East.
Jones, M.O. (2014). "Bahrain's Elections – Husbands, iPhones and Jobs." Middle East Eye.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "Bahrain's Silent Spring: What Happened to the 'Pearl Revolution?'" CNN.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "Bahrain's History of Political Injustice." Your Middle East.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "How the Al Khalifas Took a Quarter of Bahrain's Wealth." Your Middle East.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "Putting a Price Tag on Repression." Your Middle East.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "Little Hope for Bahrain as World Turns Away." Your Middle East.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "Bahrain's State Unaccountability." Muftah.
Jones, M.O. (2013). "The History of British Involvement in Bahrain's Internal Security." Open Democracy.
Jones, M.O. (2012). "Bahrain Analysis: Navigating a Rising Tide of Violence." EA.
Jones, M.O. (2012). "Bahrain Video Feature: Celebrating Creative Resistance." EA.
Jones, M.O. (2012). "Bahrain Special: The Steel Rods of the Police." EA.
Jones, M.O. (2012). "Bahrain Activists' Trouble with Trolls." Index on Censorship.
Jones, M.O. (2012). "Bahrain's PR Machine Threatens Free Speech." Index on Censorship.
Podcasts
Jones, M.O. (24/03/2024). "Amber Heard Trolling" Tortoise. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiY55ri2K0k
Jones, M.O. (2020, April). "Race to the Bottom Podcast." Race to the Bottom Podcast. Apple Podcasts
Jones, M.O. (2020, July). "Artificial Journalists, Government Versus the Robots." Government vs. the Robots. Apple Podcasts
Jones, M.O. (2020, July). "Fake Journalists Are the Latest Disinformation Twist." Angry Planet. Podcast
Jones, M.O. (2019, May). "Growing up in Bahrain." SEPAD. Podcast
Jones, M.O. (2020, June). "Digital Deception in the Middle East." Arab Digest. SoundCloud
Jones, M.O. (2021). "Counter-Revolutions Vs. Counter-Marginalization Movements: (Re)Visiting the Online Tug-of-War a Decade After the Arab Spring." Ox.ac.uk. Podcast
Jones, M.O. (2023). "Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East." Institute of Development Studies. IDS
Jones, M.O. (2022, October). "Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East & Authoritarian Adaptation." Project on Middle East Political Science. Podcast
Jones, M.O. (2022, September). "Real News, Fake News, and No News." CSIS, Babel, Apple Podcasts. Podcast
Jones, M.O. (2023, January). "Digital Surveillance in the Middle East." Al Jazeera. Link
Book Reviews
Jones, M.O. (2012). Political Change in the Arab Gulf States, Tetreault, M.A. et al. (Eds.). Journal of Arabian Studies: Arabia, the Gulf and the Red Sea, 2(2), 243-245.
Jones, M.O. (2011). Palestine Online: Transnationalism, the Internet and the Construction of Identity by Aouragh, M. Media, War and Conflict, 5(1), 92-94.
Reports
Gunter, B. et al. (2012). UK News Media Review 2012. Department of Media and Communications. Link (accessed 22 February 2015).
Jones, M.O. and Dsouza, S (2024). The Qatar Plot, TheQatarPlot.com
Media
New York Times
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Police Surveillance Tech in Dubai: How It's Changing the Game"
Link: New York Times
The Guardian
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "How False Online Claims About Southport Knife Attack Spread So Rapidly"
Link: The Guardian
BBC News
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Sydney Disinformation: How Social Media Misinformation Spread Post-Attack"
Link: BBC News
Washington Post
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Russian Propagandists Encouraged Buying Twitter Blue Check Verifications"
Link: Washington Post
Politico
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Islamophobia: UK Far-Right Violence and the Role of Race Riots in Southport"
Link: Politico
Al Jazeera English
Type: Interview Video
Title: "Gaza: The Consequences of Continued Conflict"
Link: Al Jazeera English
Financial Times
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "UAE COP28 Climate Controversies and the Online Battle"
Link: Financial Times
Reuters
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Feature: Israel-Hamas War Dire Disinformation Spreads Globally"
Link: Reuters
Bloomberg
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Starmer Tested by Far-Right Violence in Wake of Child Killings"
Link: Bloomberg
CNN
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Internet Shutdowns and Control"
Link: CNN
The Atlantic
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Gaza Hospital Explosion and the Viral Misinformation Meme Machine"
Link: The Atlantic
NPR
Type: Interview Radio
Title: "UK's Worst Riots in Years Incited by Online Disinformation About Asylum Seekers"
Link: NPR
NBC News
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Far-Right Misinformation Fuels Southport Stabbings and Protests"
Link: NBC News
Times Radio
Type: Interview Radio
Title: "Musk and the Social Media Wars: Disinformation and Hashtag Politics"
Link: Times Radio
AFP (Agence France-Presse)
Type: Comment Newspaper
Title: "Southport Was Just the Spark: UK Hit by Unrest as Far-Right Exploits Knife Attack Tragedy"
Link: AFP
