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ISSN: 2230-9926 International Journal of Development Research

Vol. 07, Issue, 08, pp.14227-14231, August, 2017

REVIEW ARTICLE ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Open Access

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN ARAB SPRING: SPECIAL

EMPHASIS ON TUNISIA’S UPRISING
*Saifuzzaman

Research Scholar, Department of West Asian studies and North African studies, AMU, Aligarh

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History: Almost immediately after the Arab uprisings began, there was debate over the role and influence
th
Received 19 May, 2017
of social media in the overthrow of Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and the imminent
Received in revised form coup of Mubarak. In covering what some deemed the Facebook or Twitter revolutions, the media
15th June, 2017 focused heavily on young protesters mobilizing in the streets in political opposition, smartphones
Accepted 16th July, 2017 in hand. And since then, the violent and sectarian unrest in Syria has brought increased attention
Published online 30th August, 2017 to the role of citizen journalism. Social media indeed played a part in the Arab uprisings.
Networks formed online were crucial in organizing a core group of activists. Civil society leaders
Keywords: in Arab countries emphasized the role of "the internet, mobile phones, and social media” in the
protests. Additionally, digital media has been used by Arabs to exercise freedom of speech and as
Social Media a space for civic engagement. This paper aims to demonstrate why the role of social media in the
Arab Spring Arab Spring cannot be disregarded. This paper does not argue that social media caused the Arab
Facebook
Spring but was an essential tool impacting the way in which the Arab Spring occurred. Social
Twitter
Civil Society media as a tool had positive and negative impacts on the Arab Spring shaping different outcomes
Democracy. in different regions. Egypt and Tunisia fall under the regions where social media proved to be
more efficient and who experienced more positive than negative impacts. The rest of the regions
including Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain and Syria were shown to benefit less from social
media whose functions backfired due to high government intervention. Special emphasis will be
on the impact of Tunisia’s uprising.

*Corresponding author

Copyright ©2017, Saifuzzaman. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Citation: Saifuzzaman. 2017. “Impact of social media in Arab spring: special emphasis on Tunisia’s uprising”, International Journal of Development
Research, 7, (08), 14227-14231.

INTRODUCTION Tragically, Syria descended into a viciouscivil

war.(Fisherman, 2015)The Arab springhad many causes. One
The popular unrest and demonstrations that started in Tunisia of the sources was social media and its power to put a human
in late 2010 and spread across North Africa and the wider face on political coercion.Technology like Facebook, twitter,
Middle East has become known as the “Arab spring” and Skype, internet, SMS and MMS played animportant role to
sometimes as the “Arab spring and winter”, “Arab Awakening facilitated these protests into broad mobilization. These
or Arab Uprisings” and while some are calling this the websites allowed protesters to spread their message of
“jasmine revolution”, quite a few Arabs also calling it the revolution at a rate which would have been impossible without
“Tunisian intifada” and we also call this the revolution of these websites. Social media were particularly pivotal in
Mohamed Bouazizi. These revolts have directly led to the Tunisia due to the country’s high rate of internet usage, at the
overthrowof several decades old regimes and their leaders time of the revolt, one-third of the population used the internet
were gone: Zine al- Abidine ben Ali in Tunisia; Gadhafi in which among the highest usage rates in Africa.(Angrist,
Libya; Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen; and most dramatically, 2013).In the 2011, social media networks played a central role
Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. Monarchies in Morocco, Jordan and in the swift breakup of at least two regimes in Arab spring
Bahrain enacted reforms to varying degrees in attempts to protest (Stepanova, The Role of Information Communication
stave off wider-scale protests.
14228 Saifuzzaman, Impact of social media in arab spring: special emphasis on tunisia’s uprising

Technologies in the Arab Spring", 2011). It is quite possible Tunisia’s transition has been supported by several
that news of these protests would have been localized factors(Rowsell, 2015)-:
exclusive of the facilitation of communication provided by
social media, allowing for a quick government crackdown on  As a small country with a relatively homogenous
these protestors and the relegation of this chapter in the Arabic population and limited experience of division along
world's history to a mere sentence of reported "insurrection ethnic or religious lines, Tunisian societal patterns were
and subsequent government intervention" in legal reinforced by ottoman and French colonial powers who
records(Alhindi, 2012). Spreading of the news of these viewed the region as a vicinity of sorts.
protests were also facilitated by modern technology to  Since independence in 1956, there have been just two
countries across the globe, and allowed for those countries presidents-one was Habib Bourguiba and Zine el-
which, at least on paper, support democracy and oppose Abidine Ben Ali, both of whom applied an iron fist and
authoritarian regimes, to lend theirpolitical support to these neither of whom left office voluntarily, so a touch of
protestors and to ensure that violence against these protestors giddiness at finding themselves sans strongman and free
would be decreased(Mikeraglass, 2011). to speak out is understandable.
 With civilian leadership and a ban on political
In 2011 there were a number of revolutionary political participation, the allowance of a limited number of
movements in the Arab world. Today, thesemovements, which opposition political parties, Tunisia’s military assumed
had shared the root causes, common values and strategies of a subservient role to the decision-making, which it
civil resistance, are sometimes jointly referred to as the "Arab largely maintained throughout the following 60 years.
spring". During these events and from the point of view of the  As in many Arab nations, political despotism and socio-
media reports they are called by the catchy words, displayed economic failure is acute in Tunisia. And this unrest
the "Twitter” or "Facebook Revolution". This suggests an points to the reality hidden behind the façade of tourist
important role for the respective Internet services and in fact brochures and lavish resorts exhibited to the outside
they were used in a number of ways of authoritarian and world. This is the world of ordinary Tunisians, of a
repressive both Governments and by the opposition rapidly depleted middle class crushed under weight of
movements, which challenged them. Right from the beginning, rampant privatization and a decreasing public sector, of
no doubt that these terms are very misleading and exaggerating soaring prices, debt, unemployment, social
the role of social media in Arab revolutions and that the Arab marginalization and young men boarding “ death boats”
revolutions would most likely still have taken place without in the hope of escape to the other side of the
the Internet, just like prior revolutions have also taken place Mediterranean.
with the respective communication technologies that were
available at their time(Cohen, 2011). Social medianetworks Events in Tunisia are of far greater import for west Asia, and
played a significant role in the fast breakup of at least two the Arab world in particular, than the immediate fact of a
regimes in the 2011 “Arab Spring” protests, Tunisia and people’s revolt forcing a head of state out of power. For one,
Egypt, while also contributing to sociopolitical activation in it is a rare example of people trying to force out a regime,
Syria and Bahrain. In Egypt, the sociopolitical gap between the rather than yet another coup effecting regime change. Two,
small ruling elite and the bulk of the population had long this is, patently, a secular uprising, not something instigated by
reached dangerous levels, prompting the majority of experts on Islamism, the specter of which is often deployed by the west
the region to envisage a main trouble at some point. However, and the ruling elites in west Asia to maintain the status quo.
the reality that the disaster took place faster rather than later, in Three, not without reason, therefore, are events in Tunisia a
direct follow-up to protests in Tunisia, was largely due to the cause for worry for many of the authoritarian regimes in west
preliminary mobilizing affects of ICT and social media Asia(Times, 2011).
networks.
Internet in Tunisia
The foundations of Tunisia’s transition
Tunisia has one of the most developed telecommunications
Tunisia that small North African “republic” state,on the Arab infrastructures in North Africa, with a high mobile penetration
world’s western shores, was born 60 years ago, has for past rate and one of the lowest broadband prices in Africa(Paul
some years been the scene of a social uprising rare in this Budde Communication Pty., 2009). As of October2008, the
tightly controlled part of the world. This outburst of popular number of GSM subscribers had reached 9 million, while the
anger was ignited by an unemployed 26-year old university number of Internet users was 1.7 million, 114,000 of whom
graduate named Mohamed Bouazizi setting himself ablaze have broadband subscriptions(Tunisia Online News, 2008).Out
outside a police station in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid of a population of 10.2 million, nine out of ten Tunisians own
on 17 December 2010. He subsequently died of his injuries on a cell phone. Of the Internet users, 84 percent access the
4 January `2011. Soon afterwards another young man Internet at home, 75.8 percentage use it at work, and 24
electrocuted himself, shouted “Nounemployment, no misery!” percent use Internet cafe´s(Arab Advisors Group, 2008). The
and more attempted suicides have been reported since. Tunisian Ministry of Communications established the Tunisian
Bouazizi’s actions set off an escalating series of Internet Agency(ATI) to regulate the country’s Internet and
antigovernment demonstrations in Sidi Bouzid and across the DNS services, which had formerly fallen under the purview of
rest of Tunisia. By late December 2010, these protests had the Regional Institute for Computer Sciences and
reached the capital, Tunis. On 14 January 2011, President Telecommunications (IRSIT)(Tunisia Online, 2002). The ATI
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled the country largely is also the gateway from which all of Tunisia’s 11 ISPs lease
unchallenged for the previous twenty-three years, fled Tunisia their bandwidth. Six of these ISPs are public (ATI, INBMI,
for exile in Saudi Arabia(Ghannoushi, 2011). CCK, CIMSP, IRESA, and Defense’s ISP); the other five—
Planet Tunisie, 3S Global Net, HEXABYTE, Top Net, and
14229 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 07, Issue, 08, pp. 14227-14231, August, 2017

TUNET—are private. The government has made services. These patterns of centralization on the Internet have
concentrated efforts to spread Internet access. The ATI reports made it possible in the first place for authoritarian regimes to
connectivity of 100 percent for the education sector implement shutdowns and censorship and to usenew media to
(universities, research laboratories, secondary schools, and their advantage.
primary schools). Government-brokered ‘‘free Internet’’
programs that provide Web access for the price of a local The Role of Facebook Twitter and YouTube
telephone call and increased competition among ISPs have
significantly reduced the economic barriers to Internet Facebook was a critical professional tool for all the journalists
access(Tunisian Internet Agency). Tunisians for whom participating in the Needfinding, and is a universal part of
personal computers remain prohibitively expensive may access Tunisians’ digital engagement; more common that email.
the Internet from more than 300 Internet cafe´s set up by the “Internet in Tunisia is pretty much Facebook,” one interview
authorities(Tunisia: Annual Report, 2008). subject claimed. Many journalists cited Facebook as a source
of “preliminary” information from which to gather story ideas
Role of social media in Arab Spring and build and understanding of the events and issues the
population is interested in. For journalists, Facebook also
operates as a form of CV – a mechanism through which they
Social media played a key role in Arabs countries, because it is represent their professional selves. For instance, a profile
an ideal tool to connect the free networks Association, which picture is seen as part of a freelance journalist’s CV; it
collects different groups and individuals for same cause? It enriches the public persona of the journalist which is important
does not give you the limitations. What happens in the Libya, to their work. Equally important is their Facebook wall and the
Bahrain, Tunisia, and Egypt and who motivated and enables nature of information shared or permitted there. Many of the
the demonstrators in Libya, Syria and Yemen. We have seen journalists mentioned building their professional networks
digital activists supporting Egyptians and Morocco’s; it using Facebook and using it to access contacts to verify
teaches us how to use these new tools. Care must be taken in stories, as well as receiving tips through Facebook messages
exaggerating the role of social media; it is just a tool. Andy from anonymous sources interested in making contact with a
Williamson (2011) says that social media have a significant journalist (Phuse, 2015).
role in the contemporary revolutionary movements; we see
around 40-45 tweets per minute from Egypt and 30-35 per According to the wiki leaks founder about face book “ Julian
minute of the Syria and the Libya, in Middle East and North Assange called Facebook "more great spy tool in the history",
Africa we are witnessing a wave of protest of citizens against which is already confirmed in an exclusive interview with
the autocratic and corrupt regime carried out(Williamson, RT.com many years ago, Google and Yahoo are also used for
2011). The “Arab Social Media Report” by the Dubai School the spying purposes . The role of face book cannot be
of Government provides penetration and usage data of some forgotten able in Arab revolution as the people share their
new media services within the respective region. For example, views and do future planning(Mainwaring, 2011). In Tunisia,
according to this report, in spring 2011 Facebook had a Facebook is more than a social platform, it is also political.
penetration rate of 22.49% in Tunisia, and 7.66% in Egypt. Facebook was a key tool in coordinating the social action that
Twitter had a penetration rate of 0.34% in Tunisia, and 0.15% led to the fall of the Ben Ali regime. It still serves as a
in Egypt(Dubai, 2011). Pivotal to the revolutions that quietly platform for organizing and gathering people to “go to the
overthrew regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and pushed for streets,” and in many ways it represents Tunisians strong
change and reform in other countries throughout the region has desire for free sharing of information and connection with the
been the role of the new social media in transforming ideas outside world. The journalists clearly valued that ability to
shared in cyberspace into real-life action on the leverage Facebook as a tool for sharing their own stories. As
ground(DeLong-Bas, 2011). Facebook is so widely used in Tunisia, there was much
commentary throughout the Needfinding engagement about
By doing deep analysis of how helpful these technologies can the importance of it in journalists’ daily lives. As one
potentially be for governments and oppositions, it is essential journalist said, “Sometimes Facebook can decide your future”.
to also take a closer view at how precisely they function and The role of face book and twitter are important because it
how they are structured. Basically, communication on the helps to link of activists and opinion about leaders for ordinary
Internet consists of a hardware layer (routers, modems,Fiber- citizens and to spread the rapid expansion of the network of
optic cables, wireless adapters, satellites, etc.) and a software people to take action. As Stowe Boyd writes” The Egypt learns
layer (the actual Internet services we use, such as Facebook, from the Tunisia citizens of other.
Skype, E-Mail, etc.). Initially, the Internet had been designed
by its inventors as a decentralized, redundant network that is Arab countries meet the challenge of determining it’s for their
highly resistant against manipulation and disruption. However, future policy and military power. Social media do not have this
today many aspects of the network both on the hardware and happen, but allow man, faster connect to common values, it
software layer are highly centralized and therefore easily back to the people and the interests of a country values used,
controlled. For example, the reason why the Tunisian almighty power shifted to all its inhabitants. The peoples of
government succeeded in shutting down the country’s Internet Egypt say special thanks for Facebook, Simon Mainwaring
connectivity was that almost all of its connections were (2011) writes in his report that when “Ideas spread more
controlled byonly four major companies, which implemented rapidly in densely connected social networks. So tools that
the shutdown in a concerted action within only 15 minutes. increase the density of social connection are instrumental to
(Ekaterina Stepanova, 2011) says in her report that social the changes that spread. And, more Importantly, increased
networking services such as Facebook or Twitter are density of information flow (the number of times that people
centralized on the software layer, making it easy to monitor hear things) and of the emotional density (as individuals
and manipulate all Communication that takes place on such experience others’ perceptions about events, or ‘social
14230 Saifuzzaman, Impact of social media in arab spring: special emphasis on tunisia’s uprising

contextualization’)leads to an increased likelihood of Facebook. Despite them being less pervasive in Egypt than
radicalization: when people decided to join the revolution mobiles, these two alternative tools were fundamental in
instead of watching it”. Democracy come is to parts of the mobilizing the mass(Nikolov, The Role of Social Media in the
Middle East and North Africa. What has the role of social Arab Spring Revolutions, 2012).
media and the Internet in these uprising? Twitter fame has
risen in the Arab world over the past year, a study published Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
Thursday exposed, reflecting the major role of the social
networking site in the “Arab Spring” revolutions. Online The role of cell phone in Tunisia revelation in Tunisia and
Twitter messages, or tweets, in Arabic rocketed from 99,000 a Egypt which could not be ignored or forgettable, the first step
day in October 2010 to over two million last month, social in revolution which took by cell phone SMS and MMS they
media monitor Semi cast showed in its study into the most shared the story of young Tunisian vendor his name
popular languages used on the popular site. Arabic is now the Muhammad Bouazizi (Photographed below). Bouazizi was a
eighth most popular language on the micro blogging site, 26-year-old fruitcart vendor in Tunisia whose goods were
where users leave short messages of about 140 characters. taken in custody and beaten badly for refusing to pay bribes to
Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites were used council inspectors. When the governor wouldn't listen to
to record the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Bouazizi's case, the young man poured a can of petrol over
Africa and organize support. “With recent events, Twitter has himself and lit a match. His self-immolation triggered months
grown extraordinarily fast in the Middle of protests across Tunisia, Egypt,Libya, Syria, and Yemen and
East(Available:http://www.fastcompany.com, 2011). Juan is credited for starting Arab Spring. The peoples of Tunisia
Mercado Philippine (2011) says that Majority of twitter user share his picture through MMS and collect the peoples for
share this message through our entire world for Twitter user protest (Sara Yin, 2011).
“My name is freedom. Born in Tunisia, raised in Egypt,
studied in Yemen, fought inLibya and I'll grow up in the Arab Conclusion
world. AliTweel, Twitter”.
"Revelation" of Egypt, Tunisia and currently in Syria
The activist role of Mobile phones in Arab Spring elsewhere in the Middle East strongly based on the Internet
technologies and social media such as Twitter Twits Pictures,
Mobile phones and new technology has played an inspiring Facebook, and mobile phones, SMS, MMS, YouTube and
and remarkable task in reaching and pursuing people Skype. The first step supports the social protest to accelerate
internationally. Although talking about abrupt social change the influence of Facebook and twitter in our social life keeps
might be too optimistic and quite unworkable, it should be growing constantly. Recently, the communication of
acknowledged that mobile telephony and the spread of the use information has been vital to the success of the Tunisian,
of social media in socio-political related issues is giving the Egyptian and Syrian revolution, Twitter andFacebook was its
source for steady and long term social changes. Already main “accelerator ". This study examines the key reasons that
people feel increasingly comfortable in taking action because explain Facebook’s, twitter and YouTube contribution to this
of the power embedded in these tools. Distances have been historical event, as perceived by Egyptian and Tunisian
reduced and times have been restrained. While arranging a Internet users, Facebook, which, according to the Arab report
revolution was involve years of personal and secret meeting on on the social media has some 21 million people in the Middle
a small scale in the past, today events like those we have East (with more than 5 million only in Egypt), is not
witnessed can be managed just in few days(Ghannam, 2011). particularly friendly protest platform. Social networking has
changed expectations of freedom of expression and association
Short Message Service (SMS) to the degree that individual and collective capacities to
communicate, mobilize and gain technical knowledge are
SMS played a central role in the creation of a "perfect storm" expected to lead even greater voice, political influence and
for the revolution which arose in the Arab world by 2011. participation over the next 10 to 20 years. Regardless of the
Indeed, SMS is one of the fastest and easiest ways to magnifying effect that social media gave to all that took place,
communicate and this simple mechanism was a key driver in the events were invariably based on a real-world fact which
sweeping thoughts and communications in the Arab Spring resounded in the virtual space. Media remained an
across the Arab World(Yin, 2011). To understand how mobile invaluableorganizational tool during the protests for planning
technologies and social media influenced Arab spring, we will different uprisings. It was the platform where ideas were
provide a simple comparative analysis of the completed discussed, information was spread and through which public
revolutions and even errors highlighted the manner in which consciousness was elevated. It proves that modern
new technologies by local governments and protesters used. technologies played a vital role in collecting people for protest
The Arab Spring gave dictators such as Mubarak and Ben Ali on one place and can change gather the millions of protestors
a hard lesson; that if you stop one method of communication, with wasting no time.
we may find other methods also. For example, Mubarak’s
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