Sepp Blatter’s sudden announcement that he would resign as president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, after 17 years, triggered a global wave of reaction on social networks on Tuesday.
Mr. Blatter, who said that he would step down amid a widening corruption inquiry, was re-elected to his post just four days ago by a majority of national soccer federations — but he was broadly unpopular with fans of the game in many parts of the world, so the online reaction was marked by a good deal of glee and schadenfreude.
There was so much joy, in fact, that the scenario reminded some observers of the reaction in the Middle East a few years ago when autocrats were forced from power after popular uprisings known as the Arab Spring.