Tunisia: Tweeting Ben Ali’s Speech–Change 2.0 or Just a Show? · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
'Long live Ben Ali' Tunisian president depicted on wall in Karouine, Tunisia (2009). Photo by Niqie on Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)
Popular protests in the streets of Tunisian cities have been going on unabated for nearly four weeks. They have posed the biggest challenge to Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in his 23 years in power. Tonight, the president delivered his third address to the nation in less than a month, promising a series of reforms including the lifting of restrictions on freedom of speech and, most notably, his pledge not to seek a new term during the presidential elections scheduled in 2014.
Right after he listened to the speech Youssef Gaigi, a Tunisian blogger, sent his reaction to Jillian C. York, who posted it on her blog. Youssef wrote:
Today’s speech shows definitely a major shift in Tunisia’s history.
Ben Ali talked for the third time in the past month to the people. Something unprecedented, we barely knew this guy. Ben Ali talked in the Tunisian dialect instead of Arabic for the first time ever.
He spoke directly to the police forces and ordered them not to shoot, unless in cases of self-defense. On the same line he said a commission will investigate in the murders that occurred.
He also said that people misled him in several areas, and particularly in the areas of politics and freedom. He admited that he didn’t achieve his goals or dreams in these areas. He granted that all liberties will be given to the people of Tunisia. He stated that the right of setting an organization, a political party, or a media will be totally opened. He said all censorship online or on traditional media will be stopped.
People are still cautious and doubt these words. We are talking about billions of $ stolen by his family. A political party, RCD, which is much much stronger than other parties. We are also talking about 150k policemen who acted like a terrorist organization for decades and particularly lately. Turning his words into action will be a very difficult mission.
We will probably start by checking his words tomorrow.
During and after Ben Ali's address, the twitter stream continued flowing under the hashtag #Sidibouzid, and was flooded by live transcriptions and comments about the speech.
Paraphrasing Ben Ali, @Khaffousa (Samira Abed) wrote:
“Je vous comprend je vous comprend!!!! Mais comprenais moi je veux rester!!!et d'ailleurs je vais rester au moins jusqu'en 2014″ #SidiBouzid
Acting on Ben Ali's words, @karim2k (Ben Karim) says he's not impressed:
I am practicing my “new” freedom of speech: We're not done with what happened in #Sidibouzid and the country
Journalist @Dima_Khatib (Dima Khatib), who live-tweeted the minutes of the speech, is also skeptical:
Ben Ali: from now on the right of demonstration is granted but you have to say when and where #SidiBouzid
And the sarcasm is never very far away. @Snake122448 (Snake) tweets:
Source sûre : Ben Ali se fout de notre gueule. Confirmé. #sidibouzid
The president's words didn't convince everybody. @Houeida (Houeida Anouar) writes that the change the president has been proposing is not what the people have been asking for. She tweets:
التـّــحوّل 2.0 (Change 2.0)…
Are we going to accept this paternalistic position of President Ben Ali?
The problem is, if we're going to test what Ben Ali is proposing, we're going to lose momentum.
To clarify: التـّــحوّل 2.0 means that the president is making his own revolution, on his own government! Not us! #sidibouzid
One of the focal points of Ben Ali's speech was his pledge to free the access to the Internet. Within hours after the speech, reports were already pouring in confirming the unblocking of some previously censored websites. Nawaat.org, is an independent collective blog which played a key role in dissemination information and multimedia material about the protests in the country, delivering a daily dose of content to citizens and mainstream media. @nawaat (Nawaat) tweets:
we confirm, our main blog nawaat.org is no more blocked in #tunisia #sidibouzid
But @nawaat later pondered, regarding press freedom in general:
RT @walidsa3d Press freedom doesn't mean democracy, look at Algeria and Egypt #sidibouzid
Reports were then confirming that access to YouTube and Daily Motion was no more blocked. But @404samiTunis (Sami Ben Romdhane) reminds his followers what the protests were about. He tweets:
Je rappele mes followers que ni Bouazizi ni les autres victimes ont donne leur vie pour accéder a YouTube ou DailyMotion!
@kais_be (kais) agrees. He tweets:
fermer Youtube ouvrez Carthage #free #sidibouzid
@yassayari (Yassine Ayari) also:
Je n'abandonnerais pas ma liberté pour Youtube #sidibouzid
Minutes after Ben Ali delivered his speech, people were reportedly cheering in the streets, honking their car's horns in a sign of joy and support for Ben Ali's pledges. But some on the Twittosphere started casting some doubt on the spontaneity of such a display of enthusiasm. @benmhennilina (Lina Ben Mhenni) tweets:
tous les gens sur l avenue ont la mm pancarte et la mm photo de zaba.quel hazard!
Journalist and commentator @halmustafa (Hasan Almustafa) confirms Lina's doubts. He tweets:
@halmustafa: مراسلة فرنسا 24 من تونس: هنالك من يشير إلى أن كثيرا من الذين نزلوا للشارع محفلين، هم من أعضاء الحزب الحاكم #SidiBouzid
@halmustafa later adds:
الشابي يقول إن هنالك مظاهرات منددة خرجت في القصرين، منتقدا عبر شاشة فرنسا 24، خطاب الرئيس بن علي، والوزير العبيدي #sidibouzid
Later in the day, and 3 hours after the President's speech, the Twittosphere received the confirmation of the liberation of blogger, activist, and Global Voices contributor Slim Amamou, whose first tweet as a free man read: “I am Free.”
@Slim404: "I am Free!"
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.