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A Revolution, Online and Off

Published on February 11, 2011

Living in a country where communication outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and even your local news can be accessed with the click of a mouse, it’s hard to imagine opening your computer only to find that these valuable sources are no longer available. But for the past three years, citizens of Tunisia have experienced censorship of a magnitude beyond our comprehension. Recently, these same citizens have turned this media censorship against the government that established it, using social media to help organize a protest that resulted in one of the most successful government overthrows in recent history.

On December 17th, 2010, as unemployment rates and food inflation kept rising at a steady level, one Tunisian citizen performed a shocking act that set off a storm of riots, demonstrations, and eventually, a complete governmental overhaul. Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor who had just had his fruit and vegetable cart taken away by the police, posted a Facebook message to his mother – “Blame our times and not me” – and, in front of a municipal building, set himself on fire.

Demonstrators distribute and burn anti-Ben Ali propaganda.

Immediately following the event that would eventually take Bouazizi’s life (he died on January 4th from his extensive burns), there were a small number of protests in Sidi Bouzid, the site of his demonstration. Citizens were outraged by the circumstances surrounding Bouazizi’s actions, saying that extreme measures needed to be taken to combat corruption in the Tunisian government. Authorities responded to these protests by firing tear gas into the crowds, a response that only strengthened the resolve of the protesters.

As dissidence spread throughout the country, eventually reaching the capitol of Tunis, an ironic thing happened. Despite the government censorship of social media sites, more and more Tunisians were sharing first hand footage and demonstration details on Twitter. Computer experts started designing a slew of proxy servers to get around any Internet blocks, which were then shared amongst the people, essentially rendering government media censors useless. The story, which had been only marginally reported in the American media (and not at all in the Tunisian media, where they instead aired game shows and pageants) began to build.

But it was a story that seemed familiar to anyone who follows Twitter closely. In April and June of 2009, the countries of Moldova and Iran, respectively, went through their own periods of uprising. Just as Tunisians used the Twitter hashtag #sidibouzid to show their affiliation, Moldovans used #pman, an abbreviation for Piata Marii Adunari Nationale, the center square where the protests took place. In Iran, the government shut down the opposition’s phone lines, forcing them to turn to Twitter and blogs to get out their message. Like in Tunisia, there were no actual signs of citizens organizing any demonstrations via Twitter; it was simply an outlet for their frustrations and a chance to show what the local media was not.

Tunisian forces stand guard among fires set by protesters.

Websites like CNN and The Atlantic were quick to refer to all three events as “Twitter Revolutions”. But here’s the difference – on January 14th, as protesters got closer and closer to the capitol building in Tunis, President Ben Ali and his family fled the country, fearing for their lives. They were denied asylum in France and are now on the run, being hunted down by Interpol on charges of property theft from Tunisian citizens. Before fleeing, Ben Ali told Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi that he was to act as president. Just one day later, on January 15th, this was found to be illegal, and Speaker of Parliament Fouad Mabazaa was named interim president until elections can be held to form an entirely new government.

Protests and political unrest have quickly spread to other Middle Eastern countries, Egypt most prominently. There have been dozens of reports of self-immolations similar to Bouazizi’s. President Mubarak announced his resignation on February 11th after three decades in power. Cairo and Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, erupted in cheers and chants that Egypt is now free. When asked by CNN which country will experience a government overthrow next, Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim simply replied, “Ask Facebook.”

The protests in Egypt began on January 25th, a date that was spread through Twitter for days using the hashtag #Jan25. And yet, when people started flooding the streets, the government seemed surprised and the police force unprepared. More and more hashtags have been flooding Twitter in the past weeks. Based on these trends, a blog called CrimethInc has put together this map of when and where protests are expected to take place.

“Citizens used social media to identify the positions of snipers, police and looters, and to alert one another to other violence.”—Rim Nour

As a collective group, Tunisians overthrew their government. A month later, Egypt did the same. The governments in Moldova and Iran remain intact. So how can three events, one resulting in the complete destruction of a corrupt administration, all be labeled with the same nickname?

As popular blogger Ethan Zuckerman wrote for Foreign Policy, “Tunisians took to the streets due to decades of frustration, not in reaction to a WikiLeaks cable, a denial-of-service attack, or a Facebook update.” Expanding on this viewpoint via email, Zuckerman says, “Social media, amplified by Al Jazeera, helped those protests spread from a small city to take over the country. And there’s some evidence that Facebook and Twitter were used to help coordinate protests in the early stages of the Egyptian movement. But it’s not a helpful piece of analysis to put the technology at the center of the discussion of protests which are about deep economic and social issues.”

Egyptians rejoice at word that Mubarak has resigned.

Echoing this sentiment, Daniel Larison of The American Conservative said, “Labeling something a “Twitter Revolution” seems to trivialize what we’re talking about, as if other nations’ political struggles can be defined by the technologies and websites that happen to be trendy elsewhere.”

Twitter and Facebook, even with their millions of users, are still primarily used by the Western world. According to a January 2010 report by marketing company Sysomos, over 50% of Twitter accounts originate from the United States. The website even acknowledges that this number has drastically dropped in the past six months and yet the United States is still the leader by a large amount. The top ten most-followed Twitter users are all American celebrities. The term “Twitter Revolution” inadvertently puts the events in Tunisia into a Western context.

However, it seems irresponsible to talk about the events in Tunisia without mentioning the influence of Twitter. It is certainly true that citizens in other countries would not have known the extent of the violence without amateur video and on-the-ground reports streaming through the website. But no matter how much information one can put into a 140-character tweet, the fact remains that these are just words on a computer. It was the Tunisian people who flooded into Sidi Bouzid. It was the Tunisian people who made their way to Tunis by the thousands.

At a DC Media Makers talk on this topic in Washington, D.C. on January 26th, Tunisian technology expert Rim Nour argued that if anything, these events were a cell phone revolution rather than a Twitter revolution. 85% of Tunisians own cell phones, while only 30% have access to the Internet. Citizens on the ground would take raw photos and videos and send them to those who had Internet access. They would then be posted to social media sites, where they were quickly aggregated and spread onto other websites.

A pause for prayer was taken each day in Cairo.

Nour also argued that social media was not used to form protests themselves, but to help the community navigate the gatherings. “Citizens used social media to identify the positions of snipers, police and looters, and to alert one another to other violence,” she said. Facebook and Twitter were also used to quell panic after false rumors of poisoned water and mass shootings spread through the villages.

While Tunisians and Egyptians may have successfully removed dictators who had been ruling for decades, the situation is still shaky. Even if things seem to be moving in the right direction – for example, a Twitter activist named Slim Amamou, who had been jailed by Ben Ali’s administration, was released and named interim minister of youth and sports in the new administration – any new government is going to be starting on unsteady ground.

As Zuckerman said in his email, “I think Tunisia will be an inspiring example to the region – and perhaps the wider world – even if the process of following the Ben Ali government isn’t a smooth one. Tunisia needs to rapidly build a culture of competitive political parties, a functioning civil society, an independent media, all while preparing for elections. That’s not easy to do and there’s no guarantee it will happen.” Until elections later this year in both Tunisia and Egypt, we can only hope that these democrat necessities can be established.

by Mary Iannone

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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