Currently browsing posts tagged: Tunisia.

Fresh looks at social media as a 2011 gamechanger

Two fresh looks at the effects, in 2011, of social media on the world. The first, a talk from my friend Ethan Zuckerman at the University of British Columbia: I’ve tapped out–imperfectly–a few excerpts for those of you who don’t watch videos: In reference to how the ‘Arab Spring’ began: Thinking about social media by [...]

03.01.2012

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#Hashtagging Real Life

Ever since my good friend Zeynep Tufekci brought me a revolutionary t-shirt from Egypt, I’ve been fascinated by the popularization of hashtags outside of Twitter. And by outside, I don’t mean on blogs, Facebook, and Flickr, where they’re increasingly appearing, but offline. T-shirts, posters, graffiti, and protest signs all make use of hashtag symbolism; rather [...]

16.10.2011

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Arabloggers 2011: Tunisian Voices

Tunisian bloggers & Politics, featuring Riadh Guerfali (@Astrubaal), Amira Yahyaoui (@mira404), Tarek Kahlaoui (@t_kahlaoui), Mehdi Lamloum (@MehdiLamloum) and Slim Amamou (@Slim404), moderated by Malek Khadraoui. The panelists spoke in French and Arabic, so all quotes below are an approximation. Some background: Tunisia is preparing to write its constitution, and both political parties and independent “lists” [...]

03.10.2011

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Arabloggers 2011 – Day One, Part One

I wasn’t able to liveblog the first few panels due to limited connectivity, but we’re now fully connected, and I’ll do my best to round up each session thus far, and liveblog those to come. Session One: Rebecca MacKinnon The inimitable Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices and free expression expert in her own right, [...]

03.10.2011

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Where I’ve Been: M100, OVC, and Blogs & Bullets

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling to various events, and the rest of autumn looks about the same; in two weeks, I’ll travel to Brussels and Tunis, then a few weeks after that to Istanbul and possibly Brazil. Then comes Canada, and perhaps a few small trips that I haven’t nailed down just [...]

18.09.2011

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Rebecca MacKinnon at TED: Let’s Take Back the Internet!

It is not often that I frame a post around a video, but Rebecca MacKinnon’s TED talk is perfect in describing one of the issues most important to me: the censorship of the Internet, both by governments and intermediaries. Not only is Rebecca a great speaker, but the nature of TED–wherein the hyperintelligent audience may [...]

13.07.2011

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A few talks from April

So, as you may well know by now that I’ve recently started a new job as Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco (whew, that’s a mouthful!). I certainly will be blogging, but as I’m still settling in, and only recently got the Internet set up in my [...]

18.05.2011

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West Censoring East: Or Why Websense Thinks My Blog is Pornography

Today, the OpenNet Initiative has released a paper, authored by Helmi Noman and myself, enumerating the widespread use of American- and Canadian-built filtering technologies in the Middle East and North Africa.  The paper, entitled “West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors 2010-2011“, looks closely at Websense, McAfee’s SmartFilter, and Netsweeper [...]

28.03.2011

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Blood, Sweat, and Tear Gas

An article I wrote for The European, published only in German on their site.  Below is the original text, in English.  Title is theirs. All too often, Western pundits talk about digital activism in developing countries as if it were some phenomenon bestowed upon poor young foreigners by the moguls of Silicon Valley or worse, [...]

31.01.2011

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How are protestors in Egypt using social media?

Shortly after writing this, reports came in that the Internet in Egypt had become a black hole, entirely–or almost entirely–inaccessible.  Updates soon. This question has been posed to me constantly over the past two days from journalists doing their best to understand the relationship between online and offline forms of protest.  I feel their pain [...]

27.01.2011

6 Comments

Facebook Enables HTTPS

I’ve done a lot of thinking, writing, and well, complaining about Facebook during the past year, mostly on behalf of the many activists I’ve met who’ve had troubles with the site. I’ve also seen, for the past year, small steps in the right direction from the social media giant.  And yesterday, Facebook made an announcement that [...]

27.01.2011

2 Comments

In Defense of Al Jazeera: A Response to Marc Ginsberg

Former Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg (during the Years of Lead, it should be noted) has penned a piece for the Huffington Post asking if Qatar-based Al Jazeera has fueled “Tunisteria” (that is, stoked the already-burning fires spreading across the Middle East toward the direction of intifada). It’s a valid question–that is, if we lived [...]

21.01.2011

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Qaddafi’s View of the Internet in Tunisia

In a speech today (full transcript in Arabic here), Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi addressed the Tunisian people. Amira al Hussaini noticed–and translated–a bit of the speech dealing with the Internet: حتى أنتم إخواني التوانسة ، ربما أنكم تقرؤون في الكلينكس هذا ، والكلام الفارغ في الإنترنت . وهذا الإنترنت ، الذي أي واحد أهبل ؛ [...]

16.01.2011

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Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution

Beginning this afternoon, shortly after (former) president Ben Ali fled Tunisia, I started getting calls about the effect of social media on the Tunisian uprising. I answered a few questions, mostly deferring reporters to friends in Tunisia for their side of the story, and then settled in for the night…only to find rantings and ravings [...]

14.01.2011

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Slim is Free

The best news of my day.  Slim Amamou tweeted “I am free” at approximately 11:45pm Tunis time.

13.01.2011

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Ben Ali to Step Down in 2014

Not the news everyone had hoped for, but news nonetheless. An email from Youssef Gaigi: Today’s speech shows definitely a major shift in Tunisia’s history. Ben Ali talked for the third time in the past month to the people. Something unprecedented, we barely knew this guy. Ben Ali talked in the Tunisian dialect instead of [...]

13.01.2011

3 Comments

Letters from Tunisia

Since the protests began in Tunisia two weeks ago, I’ve been following the events closely – mostly via Twitter, because the mainstream media was so late to catch on, and also via my Tunisian friends on Facebook (some of whom I know personally, others of whom I’ve never met).  In an event like this, with [...]

12.01.2011

6 Comments

Tunisian Blogger Slim Amamou Arrested

I am incredibly saddened and deeply enraged to report that my good friend Slim Amamou, Tunisian blogger and activist, was arrested yesterday (see @Malekk’s announcement here).  After no one had heard from him for several hours, Slim posted his location to FourSquare to let his friends know where he was.  The location?  The Ministry of [...]

06.01.2011

11 Comments

Iran but not Tunisia: Where’s the outrage?

I fear this post will raise more questions than it will provide answers.  I know that I will likely come across as naive, not able to grasp realpolitik.  I’m angry, on behalf of my friends in and exiled from Tunisia, as to why so little attention is being paid to the current situation (in case [...]

06.01.2011

5 Comments

Why I Don’t Believe in “Net Freedom”

For the past two weeks, Tunisia has been racked with unrest following the December 17 self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a young, educated vendor whose produce stand was confiscated because Bouazizi failed to show a permit.  The protests sweeping the country have resulted in further censorship from authorities, whose stronghold on the Internet has increased as [...]

02.01.2011

12 Comments

A Deeper Look into Tunisian Internet Censorship

This report was written jointly by Sami Ben Gharbia and Astrubal; I translated it from its original French into English and am sharing it here.  Originally posted at Global Voices Advocacy. We learned that the censorship imposed illegally on hundreds of Tunisian blogs and websites, both Tunisians and foreigners, was “shut off” temporarily for few [...]

18.08.2010

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The Risk of Facebook Activism in the New Arab Public Sphere

Over at The Arabist, Issandr El Amrani ruminates on Facebook’s role in Middle Eastern politics, a subject I’ve had my eye on for quite some time.  Drawing on the recent example of Egyptian reformer El Baradei and his enormous Facebook following, El Amrani marvels at the level of Facebook use for activism in the region. [...]

13.03.2010

4 Comments