Sofiane Belhaj — Cyber Dissent and the Tunisian Revolution
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A conversation with the cyber activist Sofiane Belhaj (Hamadi Kaloutcha) about the role of the Internet in the Tunisian revolution. Tunis, 23 November 2011.
Talking to bloggers from Tunis has become a rather popular activity for politicians, curators etc. Belhaj reflects: ‘We have become a classic. I have met prime ministers, ministers, even Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General — twice already. There seems to be a need to come to Tunis and to present yourself with symbolic figures from the revolution. Our worry is that all this is useless, that it doesn’t change anything.’
The grounds for Internet activism in Tunisia had been prepared already years before the actual revolution, starting around 1995 in online forums. Ben Ali was fanatic about technology but was an enemy of free expression, not the Internet itself. Facebook arrived in Tunisia in 2007 — by the end of 2008 there were already more than 1.5 million users, reaching 3 million (of a population of 10 million) by the time of the revolution.
Belhaj describes how cyber dissidents ‘stepped over the red line that had kept people from participating — and with this the line became more and more transparent.’ The Internet became a tool to develop oppositional ideas, and not to be afraid. In a society where even couples in bed whispered when speaking about politics, the digital space broke the taboo and demystified political discourse.