La Tunisie n’est clairement plus épargnée par les campagnes massives de désinformation à l’ère du trollage et des fake news. Objectif : semer la division, défigurer l’espace public et influencer les électeurs potentiels via des campagnes clandestines menées sur les réseaux sociaux.
Since the Russian interference with the 2016 US presidential elections, there have been numerous conversations, strategy building and commitments on a global scale involving policy makers, civil society and leading tech companies like Facebook to fight disinformation. In the era of “troll armies” and “fake news”, we are witnessing more and more the power of clandestine influence campaigns on social media to fuel divisions, disfigure the public spaces and influence voters. Tunisia is not exempted.
This is a portrait of the Tunisian hip hop movement DEBO through the eyes of two of its leading members: Souhayla Mansour, a cultural entrepreneur who seeks artistic solutions to social issues, and Synda Jebali, a passionate dancer who challenges herself to experiment with new forms of expression. Both dream and resist.
It was in “Antigone”, a tiny bookshop in Milan, where I met “Islam in Love” and “Allah Loves Equality”. The first is a novel, the second is a social media campaign. As you may tell from both titles, they have a lot in common.
Since 2014 when the process of decentralization was included in the country’s new constitution, political decisions still do not seem to take the south into consideration. Ongoing protests show that after decades of dictatorship, citizens no longer accept being silenced.
جملة قيلت لي عشرات المرات، نفس المعجم و نفس القصة. منهم كثيرون يشتمون الثورة و يتحسرّون مرارا على العهد البائد، عهد الأمن الاقتصادي و سحق الارهاب. و لئن أقروا مكسبا من مكاسب الثورة، فهو في مخيالهم مكسب يتيم يشككون في قيمته. لم نغنم الاّ حرية التعبير. و لكننا ”نحن الكادحون ﻻ نفطر ﺍﻟﺤﺮّﻳﺔ ﻭ ﻻ نطعم ﺍﻟﺪّﻳﻤﻘﺮﺍﻃﻴّﺔ ﻷﺑﻨﺎﺋنا ﻋﻠﻰ ﺍﻟﻌﺸﺎء ﻛﻤﺎ ﺃّﻥ ﺍﻟﺘﻌّﺪﺩّﻳﺔ الحزبية ﻟﻦ ﺗﺸّﻐﻠﻬﻢ ﻏﺪﺍ!“
What is certain: the phenomenon of terrorism is here, a deep-seated crisis for which shooting a few terrorists to death is not the solution. As more than 5,000 Tunisians are currently fighting for al Qaeda and the Islamic State, officials and parliament members today are facing the controversial question of how the country will confront “jihadis” coming back home. The answer will be in the State’s actions and will determine whether we decide to be thirty seconds to ISIS, or else to get our act together.