The recent upheaval in Tunisia that saw President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali ousted was a direct result of online technology, including blogs, Twitter and Facebook. The social networks won out, experts say. According to Thomas Johansen, a professor at the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, “technology in this whole process cannot be overlooked, as it had a direct impact on how things played out.” He said that young people were able to take the beginnings of the movement to greater strides because they could communicate with each other online. This, he argues made the ability to take to the streets and promote their goals globally, “much easier.” The online campaign buttressed on-the-ground action by demonstrators, called the Jasmine Revolution, or the Facebook Revolution, has quickly become the hope of other online activist communities across the region. The question, on the minds of youth in Egypt, Algeria, and elsewhere is if the Tunisian model – like so many models before – can be copied. “We have to wait and see at this point if it can be done, because Tunisia already had a strong infrastructure and the police and government, despite being a tough dictatorship, did not have the power as say an Egypt,” added Johansen. One thing has become certain for online leaders in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt is that the Internet, after a number of failures to galvanize a population, can have success. And it can be quick. “We need to understand the difficulties every activist face in different places in different regions, but here in Morocco, the efforts can be made real,” said Yussif Boueldin, an online blogger and activist. For now, similar bloggers and activists have continued to praise the Tunisian actions that have taken the country in a new direction. BM
