The Tunisian Revolution was a movement of people that mobilized to end the regime of President Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali that took place for 3 weeks and 6 days. The movement is ultimately against President Ben Ali’s suppressive and violent dictatorship that not only had poor economic and equality effects on the people but also restrictions on speech and political freedom. Protest began in Sisi Bouzid, started with Mohamed Bouazizi. He became a catalyst for the revolution after he committed suicide on December 17, 2010, because of the oppression of the regime and harassment from a municipal official. His frustration portrayed what many Tunisians felt towards the regime under Ben Ali, so the revolution took its course after his death as it sparked more anger and a unifying desire for change. The First protest occurred in Sidi Bouzid, were protesters gathered to demonstrate against the mistreatment of Mohamed Bouazizi. The protest was met with violence from the police and this occurred more as protests increased across Tunisia. As the protests prominence increased there was more diverse following from the people. People from varying occupations and class were involved because of the severity of issues that impacts everyone. Lawyers went on strikes, human-rights activists, dissenters, and other workers. The negative impacts of his presidency onto the people of Tunisia include the contracting economy, high levels of unemployment and inequality, censored media and internet, widespread corruption and lack of political freedom. Tunisia has aggressively censored the internet since 2005, including explicitly political sites and video sharing sites. Aside from the corruption, lack of free elections, and high unemployment media restriction and lack of freedom of speech is also a motivating factor in mobilizing. Although, the internet was aggressively censored, actors in the revolution used Twitter and Facebook and other online media in order to mobilize citizens and coordinate protests.
The movement is also known as Tunisia’s Twitter Revolution because actors in the movement used Twitter as a platform to mobilize in order to stay organized and get a successful regime change. In response, authorities issued cyber-attacks on activists on Gmail and Facebook accounts. The censorship and lack of freedom is extreme that Ben Ali’s monitors were able to obtain passwords to these accounts, to obtain information about key actors in the movement by locking out activists in order to get other user’s information. Because censorship limits certain activities and information from user’s activists had to use creative means and platforms to express information. To coordinate they posted videos to YouTube and Dailymotion to communicate events. Tunisians documented events on Facebook. Media played a significant role in helping Tunisians learn about other actions citizens were taking to mobilize. In response to the mobilization Ben Ali offered to step down in 2014. He ordered the police to stop using live ammunition on protesters, cut the price of foodstuffs, and promised to allow a freer media and end internet censorship. On January 14, Ben Ali announced the dissolvent of his government and declared state of emergency. That day people weren’t allowed to be in groups larger than three or they risked being arrested or killed. Ben Ali attempted to hold new elections within six months of the date. That same day Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia because he could not end the movement without the people ending his regime. After Ben Ali resigned as president, Parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazaa was given the presidency and was given 60 days to hold new elections. These elections gave citizens the chance to hold an election cycle and have political freedom. There was also a commission to reform the constitution and there was an increase in internet freedoms. Aside from the positives that the people mobilized for and were able to receive, leftover from the revolution are negative effects on the economy.
Overall, the movement to overthrow the regime was a successful movement because the people were able to mobilize through communicating with media about events to coordinate and speak directly to people using video platforms and messages on Facebook and Twitter. As well as their ability to stay organized throughout the violence that police forces from the regime kept using in order to control or suppress the political action. The activists in the movement kept doing demonstrations and protests across Tunisia until they weakened Ben Ali and his regime to flee Tunisia. They were effective and were able to stay organized until they received democratic elections, more internet access, and a new constitution. Even when President Ben Ali attempted to compromise with the people in the movement they didn’t compromise or stop until they got what they were fighting for.
Sources:
Chomiak, Laryssa. “Five Years after the Tunisian Revolution, Political Frustration Doesn't Diminish Progress.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Jan. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/14/five-years-after-the-tunisian-revolution/?utm_term=.d9aa86929c4d.
Zuckerman, Ethan. “The First Twitter Revolution?” Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, 15 Jan. 2011, foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/15/the-first-twitter-revolution-2/.
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