Wiem Melki from Tunisia, born in 1988, is journalist at Tunisia Live, the first Tunisian news website written in English.

The Web Revolution in Tunisia

The internet has become people’s refuge, a parallel world where they can learn more about themselves as well as the world. Social media has been playing a significant role in mobilizing the people by uniting them for a certain cause by organizing mass protests and demonstrations (whether virtual or physical) to denounce any incidents or government decisions which can put pressure on governments. The Tunisian revolution can pay significant credit to social media when people started to share horrendous videos showing the aggravating situation between the police and protesters. It also consolidated the people’s will to refute the tyrannical regime and its agents.

The interim Tunisian government noticed the importance of such a tool and created official Facebook pages or twitter accounts for different ministries or the presidency publishing announcements, activities, future plans or any clarifications. During the elections all the politicians had their own virtual profiles presenting their programs and their activities. Some parties even bought Facebook pages which have so many fans they could influence huge masses. (...)

Social media can foster a strong civil society, which makes political institutions and officials more responsive, all of which is translated into more effective decisions respecting the will of the people. Common interest groups can help users coordinate for collective action. It can be a sign of civic engagement through political participation or membership in NGOs and associations. People can find NGOs that relate to their aspirations through it and thus join and be effective citizens in their communities. It can gather users for symbolic flash mobs such as an event called "Tunisia Reads". The event started small on Facebook to grow huge by gathering hundreds of people in Habib bourguiba Avenue in the capital with their books in their hands as a symbolic stand for a cultural revolution.

Social media can also hide another face, it can be full of rumors. It has become easy to believe rumors and spread them like fire. Citizens are exposed to different truths. We speak about different versions of the same event or incident. It can be misused as a tool to divert the public opinion by twisting truths to serve certain propaganda especially by exaggerating certain events and thus altering the public opinion. (...)

There is this new trend of people too lazy to think. So, they just think like a certain blogger or might check with his or her opinions to see how "right" they are, since bloggers are supposed to be "great" thinkers having the keys of "reasonable and healthy judgment". (...)

Social media is a powerful way of freedom of speech. Anyone can publish anything. The quality of the material published has become equivocal. Now, we talk about citizen journalism, online journalism, two new revolutionary forms of media. Citizen journalism has opened doors to common people to express the thoughts and share events as they see them. So we face different versions and each version is affected by the writers’ background and convictions. On-line journalism has made information faster to be shared. Unfortunately on-line journalism can also promote the spread of certain rumors by publishing unchecked facts only to get more traffic and hits. We are concerned about the quality of information delivered, how authentic and how natural as well.

Disclosing information through social media has become "unsafe". It is true that it can spark attitudes and behaviors that enhance public life and civic action. Yet, it can spawn rumors panic and mass "idiotization".