Tunisia: Let’s Invade Social Networks! · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.
A crazy wave of posts hit the world of social networks when Tunisian netizens decided to invade Facebook and Twitter with their comments. The move started with netizens showing solidarity and support for the American Occupy movement by posting chants and messages on the official Facebook page of United States President Barack Obama. Many of those comments were funny as they tried to Americanize the chants of their revolution that started last December.
This came hand in hand with a hashtag on Twitter called #TrollingObama. Those posts not only to supported the protests across the US but to also criticized US foreign policy.
Twitter reactions
Here are some of the reactions from Twitter:
@JuveSimo: Unbelievable! More than 75 000 comments in Obama official page on #fb. Tunisians are showing a great solidarity.
@esslem: 2008 Obama : Yes we can.. 2012 Obama : Oh no I cant I cant I cant :( Tunisians make me crazy :'( I cant :(
@GKaroui: #ObamaSpeech saying that he'll strike very hard on protesters.
@Geekette86: After #TrollingObama and #TrollingSarkozy, Tunisians are #TrollingNetanyahu now #TrollingGhannouchi and #TrollingSaudi
@butterfly_miss_: Tunisians giving #Obama communications team a headache
@maydu: breaking news: #Libya is threatening to use its veto power to avoid African union's intervention in the #US #trollingobama.
@othmaniRabeb: Note to the World: If Tunisia loose power and Internet, it's probably Obama's gov xD #Censorship
@slim404: Tunisia Trolls™ are showing their domination over FB. Zuckerberg got scared and closed his wall http://facebook.com/zuck
@AfefTN: the #trollingobama idea is funny, but it is tainted with black humor and has a serious message behind it.
@AfefTN: explanation of #trollingobama : Tunisians are not doing it just for fun, but to mock the Obama administration which claims to support democracy in the Arab World but oppress its own people.
@TunisianAmazigh: I'm a Tunisian and I am proud of my #FreedomOfTrolling :D
@Dima_Khatib: Tunisians writing on Obama's FBpage : Obama Coward You Are An Agent of the Americans! :) (slogan used against Arab dictators).
Facebook attack!
Up until 8 pm (EST time) Tunisians posted over 80,000 comments on Obama's official Facebook page; here are some snapshots of what they wrote:
#TrollingSarkozy and more
Although this spam-attack campaign started with Obama to show the Tunisian dislike of the police brutality used against the protesters of the Occupy movement, it didn't take Tunisians long to subsequently attack the official page of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and use the hashtag #TrollingSarkozy.
The trolling movement has also included Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Head of Tunisian Islamic party Al-Nehdeh Rached Ghannouchi , Hanibal TV which has been accused of being friends with the former regime and of being funded by Libyan Moamer Al-Gaddafi, and Al-Jazeera Mubashar  as Tunisians accuse Qatar of interfering in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya especially by supporting Islamists.
In the snapshot below, one can read comments from the wall of Islamist Tunisian figure Rached Ghannouchi. Some wrote “Degage” which is the famous French word used in the protests against ousted Tunisian President Zeine Al Abedine Ben Ali to demand his departure. Some defended Habib Bourgiba, the president of Tunisia before Ben Ali, whom Ghannouchi criticizes. One comment wrote a parody statement that Ghannouchi would write to condemn police brutality against the Occupy protesters:
This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.