"e-Revolution" in Tunisia
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By Marko Papic and Sean Noonan Internet services were reportedly restored in Egypt on Feb. 2 after being completely shut down for two days. Egyptian authorities unplugged the last Internet service provider (ISP) still operating Jan. 31 amid ongoing protests across the country . The other four providers in Egypt -- Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr -- were shut down as the crisis boiled over on Jan. 27. Commentators immediately assumed this was a response to the organizational capabilities of social media websites that Cairo could not completely block from public access.
Social Media as a Tool for Protest
La cyberrésistance marque des points
Les jeunes Tunisiens ont enfin trouvé un moyen de faire entendre leur voix grâce aux réseaux sociaux. Le régime de Ben Ali n’arrive plus à les faire taire. Pour le président Ben Ali, au pouvoir depuis vingt-trois ans, la dernière quinzaine de décembre 2010 et les débuts de janvier 2011 n’ont pas été de tout repos.
News from Tunisia looks good. For better or worse, many of us will be pondering the role that the Internet played or didn't play in the events of the Jasmine Revolution. Below are some preliminary reflections, which, if you know me well, are likely to change by the end of next week! One thing to keep in mind is that revolutions will continue and Twitter won't go away anytime soon. So, it's reasonable to assume that there WILL be some new-media activity for any social or political turmoil. But correlation, as well all know, doesn't always mean causation.
First thoughts on Tunisia and the role of the Internet
Over Twitter , Sami ben Gharbia - who, I hope, will finally get a chance to return to Tunisia after his long exile - pointed out that social media did play an important role in "feeding" information to Al-Jazeera and France 24, conceding that at the same time it didn't have much of an impact on the coverage of the protests in the US. Sami's remark made me think about my earlier blog post a bit more. My argument isn't really about the efficacy of social media in improving the coverage of the protests in the mainstream media (i.e. their venue, schedule, leaders, etc). Rather, my argument is in the vein of Ethan Zuckerman's reflections on media attention patterns - and ways of shifting them. But while Ethan's work is focused mostly on getting ordinary Americans to care about foreign affairs, my interest here is on a somewhat different, more pragmatic level: getting Americans to care is likely to push Washington to care as well.
Tunisia, social media and the politics of attention
What if Tunisia's revolution ended up like Iran's
(I am not a big fan of counterfactual thinking, but in this particular case it does help to generate new insights.) So let's assume that the protests in Tunisia had eventually gone the way of the Green Revolution in Iran: the government stayed in power, regrouped, and began a massive crackdown on its opponents. As we know from the post-protest crackdown in Iran, the Internet has proved a very rich source of incriminating details about activists; the police scrutinized Facebook groups, tweets, and even email groups very closely.
Quel impact d'internet sur la révolution tunisienne?
Quel a été l’impact des médias en ligne, et notamment des réseaux sociaux, dans la «révolution de jasmin» tunisienne, qui s’est traduite le 14 janvier par la fuite du pays de Ben Ali ? Comme pour d’autres mouvement de protestation, en Iran par exemple, la question est posée par les médias, l’AFP décrivant par exemple Twitter et Facebook comme «des caisses de résonance de la révolte des Tunisiens», dans «un flux ininterrompu que le régime n'est pas parvenu à contenir» . Un flux qui s’est traduit, également, par de nombreuses vidéos postées sur YouTube sous l’intitulé Sidi Bouzid (la ville d’où est partie le mouvement) ainsi que, dans une autre perspective, par les informations publiées par Wikileaks , selon lesquelles les diplomates américains voyaient l’entourage de Ben Ali comme une «quasi-mafia» et le régime comme «sclérosé» .Le Blogging en Tunisie : une révolution ou une évolution? Les tunisiens ont compris depuis quelques années que les skyblogs n’ont pas leur place sur la toile tunisienne et nous avons assisté à une émergence des blogs à caractère professionnel, des blogs qui traitent de sujets beaucoup plus importants que les anciens “tiens c’est moi et mes amis sur la photo…”, des blogs qui sont devenus une source d’informations à ne pas négliger, même pour les journalistes classiques qui viennent désormais dénicher quelques scoops sur ces blogs web. Qui sont ces jeunes blogueurs tunisiens passionnés par les médias-web, pourquoi les blogs ? La plupart de ces jeunes appartiennent à une tranche d’âge de 20 à 35 ans, des étudiants, des jeunes diplômés, des jeunes cadres et chefs d’entreprises qui ont trouvé un moyen plus rapide, plus facile d’accès et moins coûteux pour toucher une population à l’affût des nouvelles sur Internet.
Le Blogging en Tunisie : une révolution ou une évolution?
Lebanon: Bloggers Support Tunisian Protests against “Arab Pinochet”
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011 . Lebanese bloggers have joined the chorus of concern over the Tunisian riots that have thus far claimed 24 lives. Sympathy and support is extended to the Tunisian youth protesting the authoritarianism, corruption, and poor economic management of President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, dubbed the “Arab Pinochet” by Lebanese blogger, the Angry Arab . The protests began after the self-immolation attempt of 24-year-old, Mohamed Bouazizi, in frustration at the country's high unemployment, soaring food prices and government corruption. The Arab world is following attentively Tunisia's worst internal crisis in decades, as many Arabs empathise with the desperation felt by the Tunisian protestors.
Tunisians Document Protests Online
Nawaat.org An image from a Tunisian blog of students in the capital, Tunis, who arranged themselves to spell out the words “No to Murder” in Arabic on Monday. Updated | 10:55 p.m. As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reports from Tunisia , protesters there have been using the Web to organize demonstrations and spread news of violent clashes with the security forces in recent weeks. Last week, one activist and blogger, Slim Amamou , even managed to alert the world to the fact that he had been arrested by apparently turning on his phone and using Google Latitude to reveal his location: inside an interior ministry building in the capital, Tunis.
Friday evening, Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali boarded a jet for Malta, leaving his prime minister to face streets filled with protesters demanding a change of government in the North African country. The protests began weeks earlier in the central city of Sidi Bouzid, sparked by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate whose informal vegetable stall was shuttered by the police. His despair exemplified the frustration that many Tunisians felt with their contracting economy, high levels of unemployment and inequality, censored media and Internet, and widespread corruption. Protests spread from city to city, with trade unions, lawyers, and countless unemployed Tunisian youth demanding a change to an economic system that appeared to benefit a small number of families close to power and leave ordinary citizens behind. As the protests intensified, Ben Ali offered concessions to his people: 23 years into his reign, he agreed to step down in 2014.
The First Twitter Revolution? - By Ethan Zuckerman
Vient-on dassister en Tunisie à la première e-révolution réussie ? Certains observateurs avaient évoqué la puissance du Web et de la blogosphère après les révoltes populaires en Iran (2009) ou en Birmanie (2007). En Tunisie, cest limmolation dun jeune chômeur, acte relayé par les blogs et les réseaux sociaux, qui a suscité la colère de la population. Les rares images des premières manifestations ont été propagées grâce aux smartphones et au Web. Cest en utilisant notamment YouTube et Facebook que les Tunisiens se sont mobilisés. Cette pearl compile des analyses sur lutilisation des outils du Web dans le soulèvement populaire en Tunisie. Nhésitez pas à apporter votre contribution ! by julnoc Jan 17