The technique of the uprising

The technique of the uprising

During the protests in the Middle East and North Africa, activists have used modern technology such as probably never before. But how great the influence of social media and Web video really was - and in what ways they were used?

They are young, they constantly say "fuck", and even the name of their group "Takriz" is an obscenity: The slang term is based on the Arabic word for testicles. Nevertheless, it would be totally wrong, understand Takriz just as insignificant bunch of young men with a penchant for expletives: The Takrizards or short Taks have promoted since the late nineties, the change in Tunisia, and they have contributed much to the fact that ultimately large Parts of the people dared to stand up against the regime. The rest is almost history: President Ben Ali had to flee, and the neighbors in the region began the "Arab Spring".

Founded in 1998, after Takriz own account at the beginning of a tiny "cyber-Think-Tank", was the freedom of speech and called for affordable Internet access. The members communicated mostly via the net. Because "we could be anonymous online," says fetus, a technology consultant with an MBA degree, who speaks six languages ​​and by his own admission was a hacker, because he was not the high cost of telephone and Internet in Tunisia could afford. Foetus want his real name as well as the other Taks betray in any case - they see themselves more in the fight against the followers of Ben Ali, in their view of the same wood are corrupt.

The freedom in the young medium of the Internet was short-lived: In August 2000 the Takriz website was blocked in Tunisia by the government. But other deals closed the gap. A core-Tak named SUX launched the first Arab-African social network, called SuXydelik. Zouhair and Yahayaoui, then a Tak in the thirties with the online name "Ettounsi" - the Tunisians - founded the satirical Web magazine TuneZine. He was in Tunisia to fame - and later arrested and tortured. In 2005 he died at the age of 37 from a heart attack.

Ettounsi was not the only one of Tak, who got to do with the regime. The first years of the new millennium, they are also called "years of human hunting" - many stopped their political activities and went into exile. Others were radicalized by the prosecution but only as Riadh "Astrubal" Guerfali, a law professor who lives in France. Together with the Tunisian exile Sami Ben Gharbia, he found innovative ways to use technology: the two sites crawled by airplane enthusiasts and found a video that demonstrated how the First Lady with the hated Präsidentenjet flew to the shops. They "geo-bombing" the presidential palace by him in Google Earth and Google Maps with linked videos, criticizing human rights in Tunisia where he who had looked at the palace at Google, in an instant access to these videos.

Another innovation was a close relationship of Takriz to football fans. "Mosques and stadiums have long been the only places where young people could drain in the Middle East, their anger and frustration," says James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and author of the blog "The Turbulent World of the Middle East Soccer ". "Football is little attention," says Dorsey, "because the violence-prone fans are not bomb the World Trade Center." But they are fighting in pubs, often against the police.

The idea of ​​utilizing these combat readiness for political purposes was, as if in a game of the Tunisia Cup 1999 came to an outbreak of violence with many wounded and several dead. The Taks quickly recognized the advantages of working with the "ultras", as the most extreme football fans are called. Over several seasons, built on a web forum for ultras SUX different teams. A variety of special North African Ultras character of a political rather quickly spread among the football-crazy youth of Tunisia and also in Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Morocco. When the Revolution began, the ultras were playing a whole new game: You were such a thing as the quick reaction force of the protest movement.

What ultimately led to the overthrow of Ben Ali, had a long history: Already in 2008 it came in the mining region of Tunisia, near the town of Gafsa, working conditions for many months to protest against corruption and bad. At its height police forces fired on demonstrators, sharp, one of whom was killed, injured 26, there were hundreds of arrests. The riots, however, remained localized, largely because the security forces isolated the area from the outside world.

In Egypt, there were 2008 labor protests in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla in the. For the sixth April of textile workers were planning a strike. Ahmed Maher, a 27-year-old civil engineer and activist who learned about it and decided to organize in support of demonstrations in Cairo and a nationwide shopping boycott. For this purpose he used leaflets, blogs, internet forums, and a Facebook page.

One month after the protests of 6 April Maher was arrested, beaten for hours and threatened with rape. Upon his release, he held a press conference at which he announced spontaneously, the "movement 6 April to start. " It should be the core of a secular-oriented youth movement in Egypt - a counterweight to the youth movement in the Muslim Brotherhood.

For Taks in Tunisia Ben Ali was re-elected in 2009, the straw that broke the camel's back. Foetus found himself before another decade, "Ben Ali and his mafia," because he believed that the Tunisians for resistance had too much fear. "So we have increased the pressure in the stadium and started making trouble on the Internet," he says, "we have decided to fuck absolutely everyone." On Facebook, the opposition activists berated for their timidity.

To heat the street youth, Takriz shrink from a little back. On 11 August 2010 marked the tenth anniversary of the censorship of Takriz website. She recalled with the publication of a photograph, on the one Tak urinated on a picture of Ben Ali. The youth minister was not amused and called Takriz "monster with a black heart that hide in dirty places and the Internet". Because the group was perfectly timed their action: The next day was to start a pet project of Ben Ali - the UN event, "2010 International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding".

The summer of 2010 was also the prelude to the revolution in Egypt. On 6 June was a young programmer named Khaled Said in an Internet cafe in Alexandria, as he was dragged by two plainclothes police on the street and beaten to death, allegedly, he had resisted his arrest. His family say he was obsessed with video, to see the police in drug trafficking.

Said was released a symbol of the Revolution, when his brother Ahmed on Facebook terrible photos of the dead. Then formed the group "We are all Khaled Said," which won a major influence virtually overnight. Mostafa Hassan, a burly local activist, saw the photos on his cell phone and called over his own Facebook page now for protests outside the police station. More than a dozen protesters were arrested and severely beaten. After further actions, including one played lawsuit against the Mubarak family in front of the house of Said, Mostafa was jailed for six months.

The long, hot summer boiled over the next revolution. The global financial crisis became apparent, the price of food rose, and Ramadan in the scorching August brought long days without food or drink. Neither Tunisians nor Egyptians had much to celebrate.

Early December, then reached the Egyptian ruling party in the run-off elections to parliament nearly 80 percent of the seats - Human rights groups described the vote as the most fraudulent in the country so far. But it was Tunisia, where a little later the Revolution broke out first right on 17 December 2010 put the vegetable traders in the town of Sidi Mohamed Bouazizi Bouzid himself on fire to protest against a series of humiliations by petty officials. Peaceful protests following the action met with harsh reactions - it was reported only on the Internet, the media fearful of the country remained silent.

But the death of Bouazizi brought together hitherto isolated pockets of resistance. Takriz the leadership knew that Ben Ali would seal off the town of Sidi Bouzid - as in 2008 during the protests in Gafsa. So they quickly sent additional Taks there before roads were blocked and Internet access.

The area in the hinterlands of Tunisia ...