New online crackdown in Tunisia mobilises Facebook users
2009-07-08
Tunisians unable to access YouTube and Dailymotion launch a Facebook group to protest what many believe to be a ban on the popular websites.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 08/07/09
 [File] The Facebook group "Free from 404" brings bloggers and internet users together to talk about online censorship. |
A group of Tunisian bloggers started a new campaign on Facebook last week to condemn censorship of the internet by the Tunisian Internet Agency and put pressure on the government to unblock the social websites YouTube and Dailymotion.
Over the last few months, internet users have received "404: Page Not Found" errors when trying to surf the two websites. Observers say the motive behind the blockage might be political, coming as it does in the months before Tunisia's presidential and parliamentary elections.
In the first day alone, more than 1,000 members joined the campaign. Today, more than 4,600 members are registered.
"The Tunisian citizen wishes to use the internet just like the Norwegian, Japanese or any other citizen who wishes to make use of the Internet and its vast capabilities unhindered," the group's introduction said. "Limiting the online navigation area is but an obstacle facing Tunisian citizens and curbing their development."
This is the first phase in the campaign, group members said. The next step will be on a wider scale, inviting journalists to join the campaign and writing newspaper articles to support the cause. Eventually, the group will send a message to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, asking him to lift the censorship and support freedom of speech.
Ayech Mel Marsa, the blogger who launched the campaign and a well-known activist in the country, said that campaigns against censorship and blockage of the internet used to be limited to bloggers and journalists, "But we realised that changing the means of expression is a must if we wish the protest to extend beyond its traditional limits."
Therefore, he said, this time the campaign used logos and cartoons to appeal to the public, members wrote and sketched caricatures and are finishing a song about the situation. He said that the campaign tried to avoid politicising its cause.
The protest received instant responses.
"Enough backwardness and belittling of people's brains," blogger Extravaganza wrote on July 1st. "Enough randomness in dealing with the issue of what can be posted and accessed, and what cannot."
Sami El Aouichaoui saw the increasing censorship on the internet as a prelude to more strict measures before the election campaign. "I think the authorities understood the lesson, as they carefully watched how bloggers and internet users in Iran disclosed many of the implicit facts pertaining to the elections," Aouichaoui said. "They did not want the same thing happening in Tunisia."
This was not the first time Tunisian authorities blocked a social network website. In August 2008, the Tunisian Internet Agency blocked Facebook itself. At the time, scores of internet users protested the move and urged the government to unblock the popular venue. Journalist and blogger Ziad El Heni filed a lawsuit against the agency for blocking the website.
Facebook was not unblocked in Tunisia until a few weeks later, when President Ben Ali personally intervened. El Heni's lawsuit is not settled yet.
"This campaign has taken on a whole new dimension and has created bigger echo," said blogger Mandella Ettounsi, given that it followed the Facebook case, which was won by the public's pressure. "I also think that such campaigns should not be limited to cyberspace. An actual physical association needs to be formed to undertake co-ordination with the various components of civil society and progressive forces in order to exercise more pressure on the authorities and end the policies of blockage, piracy and website termination."
Saida Ben Rhouma believes the campaign launched on Facebook calling for a boycott of the elections managed to attract the attention of the Tunisian authorities and drove officials at the Tunisian Internet Agency to be on the alert.
Reporters without Borders expressed concern over the increasing censorship on the internet in Tunisia. Before the elections, the non-profit organisation said, the hope was that there would be more tolerance from the government. "However," reads a statement published on the organisation's website, "the police continue to persecute any reporter who criticises the regime. Independent press in Tunisia remains an ordeal for those who wish to practice it."
The organisation warned of using the coming elections as an excuse for "more severe crackdown" on the media and citizen journalists.
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Anonymous Posted 2009-07-08
The Tunisians will never be able to use the Internet as free citizens under the stupid and evil dictatorship crushing them. The blogger who said that limiting the scope of the Internet is a brake on and an obstacle to the development of Tunisia was right. The same goes for whoever said, "Enough retrograde-ism and downgrading of our brains." And that is exactly what it is right now. A dictatorship needs idiots and cowards in order to subsist. This is why it has to fight against culture and communication. It needs to reduce people to the state of animals, to which Chirac referred when talking about human rights in Tunisia. He was only referring to the right to food in order to please his friend Ben Ali. In France, they would have responded by throwing tomatoes at him publicly, but in Tunisia the raise human beings like two-legged animals. This is a country of bio-industry, so what difference does it have with a farm? They have not even forgotten the dogs to keep the herd in a state of obedience - and there is no lack of dogs in Tunisia. They have infiltrated our work places, our academic establishments, our universities, our mosques, our cafés and our tourist areas (because tourists are also under surveillance). The innocent Tunisians, who sit naively right beside them, are charged with one mission: report their conversations. The Arab countries appreciate this; they chose Tunisia as the headquarters for two very important organisations: The Council of Ministers of the Interior, representing the sinister torturers, and ALECSO, the Arab UNESCO. Thanks to the latter, the number of illiterate Arabs does not stop increasing. Out of 335 million Arabs, 100 million are illiterate. This number has increased by 20 million in the last two years. The stability of these regimes is thus guaranteed.
mm Posted 2009-07-10
How does illiteracy grow by 20 millions in two years is beyond logic and ya namous now that the heat is on there is also strong repellants to get rid of you at very reasonable prices.And since when a handfull of you know what have a say in world politics i accessed face book with no problem at all so why don't you go and cool down a little before your next tirade on little tunisia
maaroufi mouldi Posted 2009-07-11
The service supplier can dictate the MB you are allowed to use monthly according to your means and your contract and tunisia is not any different to the rest of the world as a matter of fact they are very generous as you are charged penies.It is also the responsibility of the supplier to watch the content of the webpage and he can be persued by law if he publishes a blogger who attacks , incites or publicises any articles that touch other people or hinder their enjoyment with misuse of defamation or insults or aiding and abeting to commit crime .After all computer science is used to go where man has never been before in all fields of civilazation and not propagate hatred and lies like it is in some cases.
Tunisien et non"chienymous" Posted 2009-07-15
Anonymous is mistaken about the country and about the period of time. In effect, it is enough to know that the number of university and school students - 360 thousand - represents one third of the population and all of them, without any restriction, have free, unpaid access to the Internet. This is thanks to the will of the public powers, which do not skimp on any effort on the continuous improvement of access to the Internet and which encourage Tunisians to acquire personal computers at affordable prices and connect to the Internet at low costs (five euros per month) in order to access this net of thousands of public networks that stretch of all our national territory. Accordingly, the number of Tunisian Internet users surpassed 1.8 million people in March 2009. Tunisia holds an advanced standing in terms of trans-international communication and Tunisian competency in this field is globally recognised. Note: Every year, 8 million tourists visit Tunisia, a country of 10 million inhabitants. Accusing the Tunisians of "sucking" and of being "illiterate", which are just lies, is inadmissible and shameful. I believe that Tunisians deserve a lot more respect.
Anonymous Posted 2009-07-21
Everyone will have certainly notice the presence of the agressive bulldogs sent by Tunisia's Internet propaganda and spying services. Their mission is to lead the debate astray and to divert attention from real problems anytime someone tries to bring them up, something that is quite rare in the Republic of Terror and Torture that Tunisia has become. The people live in anxiety and fear. They no longer dare to speak out and expose themselves to a danger that is far from being imagined. The case of this former university teacher (age 68) being sent to prison for eight months for re-publishing a message on the Internet suffices to show the baseness of the regime. Sending a retired professor to prison right beside thieves, murderers and criminals is a scandal. Even if Tunisia has a Ministry of Human Rights and Ben Ali chairs the Dialogue of Civilisation, no civilised country would lower itself to this level of barbarism. Ben Ali poses this chair as if it were that of an organisation that "favours contacts, the spread of knowledge and debates under complete liberty, without taboos and animated by mutual respect." When this translates into practice, however, you see the spread of one sole thought, that of dictatorship and the persecution of those who spread information. Moreover, Chairman Ben Ali organises meeting for young people under the name of "The Achievements of the new Era" (i.e., that of the coup d’état) along with so many other meetings under the slogan "The Tunisian Youth, Continually Faithful to Ben Ali". The Nazis could not have done better during Hitler's time, nor could the Communists during the time of the little Father of the Peoples, the great criminal, Stalin. Tunisian dictatorship is in the process of committing a genocide of intelligence.
Manad Posted 2009-07-24
I am an Algerian who has been living in Tunisia since June 1996. I can attest to the inaccuracies in the accusation being made against the Tunisian regime in the present article. The Tunisian regime has, in complete impartiality, not ceased in making giant steps toward the freedom of expression, the development of Information and communication technologies and the development of the economy, which is integral to the country. This pushes me to further stay here to live and to educate my children in complete tranquillity, joy and confidence. Regarding the former university professor, she was charged with spreading false rumours that attacked public order by writing and peddling this rumour on Facebook: "Five children were kidnapped from a kindergarten in the Olympic city by masked men in a black car, who belong to an international band specialised in organ trafficking." This false information created panic and a state of fear for most families. Even my families were truly afraid. I hope from the bottom of my heart that the Tunisians are aware of the importance of the achievements Tunisia has made and will protect them from those who would want to harm the country and allow foreign powers destabilise an Arab-Muslim country that has demonstrated the capacity of the Maghreb people to direct themselves In the absence of gas and oil to build a country emerging par excellence. (Congratulations!)
Bzgfsktlesqvcpf Posted 2009-07-26
I am a Martian. I landed in Tunisia in my spaceship for a change of atmosphere, as the one on the Red Planet is not advisable. I looked for a nice country on planet Earth: a country without gas and oil because we have too much gas on Mars; a democratic country with a multiparty political system and freedom of the press - not a country with a fascist party that gives no opportunities to others and puts itself in place of the nation; a country where the people are sovereign and where the parliament has control and can dismiss the president when if he abuses his power - not a president with pontifical infallibility who is above the law no matter what he does before, during or after his term; a country with a modern president without the character of the chief of a Bedouin tribe from 2000 years ago who has the right to choose life or death for his subjects; a country with a president who goes home honourably at the end of his term without changing the constitution to cling to power; a country with a president who does not have the prerogative of the national development funds at his disposal and who is not the sole person in control of it without any parliamentary checks; a country with a modern presidents who does not rig the elections; a country with a president who respects human rights; a country where there is no torture and intellectuals do not suffer cigarette and electrical burns on the sensitive parts of their bodies; and, a country where the wives of dissidents are not subjected to degrading, sexual humiliation. It just so happens that on Mars we had an Algerian who was lost. He advised that I go to Tunisia. But, I went back to my planet as quick as possible, and ever since i have been recommending to Tunisians to try Mars' atmosphere.
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