Paper Title: Social Movements in the Age of the Internet: The New Contested Sphere of Political Discourse. While the Arab Spring was consuming many countries in the Arab Middle East and North Africa in the past year, many were wondering about the lack of such public uprisings in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This was particularly relevant, as it was Iran which first had experienced a spontaneous and authentic social uprising following the questionable presidential elections of 2009. The uprisings in Tehran and many other cities were quickly and violently put down by the regime's oppressive security machinery. It is the intent of this paper to investigate the specific socio-cultural, political and economic conditions that determine the dynamics of social change in Iran, and which set it apart from the Arab Middle East. It is of particular interest here to further present an analysis of the viability of the burgeoning virtual space as the new sphere of political contestation. It is evident that the Islamic government intends to use this new space for the dual purposes of surveillance and censorship, as well as a means for the regime propaganda. The Islamic government, furthermore, considers cyberspace as a battle ground in which it is engaged in an ongoing “soft war” with its local and global adversaries. The Islamic government’s efforts in containing the threats coming from this contested space will be further analyzed.