Jordan has been deeply touched by the Arab uprisings – not because the regime has had to confront a mobilised citizenry demanding its fall, but because of the gradual accumulation of too many crossed red lines to ignore, cutting across many segments of society (Schwedler 2012).

In 2011–12, Jordan experienced its version of the Arab uprisings as the country was rocked by a series of street protests, organised via social media. The passages above illustrate facets of new media armed citizen engagement, broadly defined as hirak movements, versus a monarchy trying to preserve the status quo. The Jordanian opposition includes a weak coalition of contentious forces united in their shared interest in change. On the streets were East Bank Jordanians, youths and Islamists, all of whom have supported the monarchy in the past. The street protests were surprising, because of the broad coalition of activists, and the direct confrontation with the king.

Social media supported resistance in Jordan reflects a public increasingly disappointed by the stagnating economy, unemployment, hyper-inflation and increases in perceived corruption. The immediate triggers to the street protests were economic, including a lifting of fuel subsidies in 2012 (Haddad 2012) necessitated by the country's crippling debt, which had climbed to more than 70% of GDP (IMF 2012). The Jordanian government was so fiscally challenged in 2012 it could not pay public-sector salaries, and the enforced lifting of fuel subsidies resulted in an immediate 50% increase in fuel prices (Al-Khalidi 2012).