As I noted yesterday, a faction of Anonymous has launched OpTunisia, its response to a recent clampdown on civil liberties by the Tunisian government in the wake of Wikileaks releases and protests by Tunisian citizens. Government websites, with the exception of those that are involved in human services and other essential functions, have been forced down by Anonymous participants and in some case hacked and replaced with a message to the Tunisian people. Other participants, many of whom helped to engineer similar attacks on other countries and multinational corporations in support of Wikileaks and other issues, are in contact with Tunisian dissidents, who themselves are now redistributing these messages to others within the country in order to show our support for their reasonable aspirations.
Update
Anonymous has developed a script by which Tunisians can prevent the government from spying on their social networking accounts.
Although the great bulk of the Tunisian people, a few of whom I've spoken with over the past 24 hours, are opposed to their government's tyrannical policy of limiting their right to express themselves and to learn about the world around them, this movement has been largely and unsurprisingly ignored by the U.S. media. In order to bring further pressure on the Tunisian government to make the right choice and restore the rights of its citizens, those who care enough to act in solidarity with the Tunisian people must first bring pressure on American news outlets to cover this important story even if such efforts hamper coverage of the various pop singers and reality stars who may be battling substance abuse and hair mishaps. Cyberwar means sacrifice; if you agree, consider e-mailing your favorite blogger or outlet and ask them to cover the Tunisian affair. I will also be updating this post with any pictures or videos of ongoing protests that are provided to us by Anons living in the area; these will be free to anyone who cares to use them.
In the meantime, I'll note that Anonymous IRC staging grounds are being counterattacked by unknown parties, although the situation now appears to be resolved.
Anyone who has questions may leave them here or e-mail me at barriticus@gmail.com; those seeking to learn more about Anonymous may also get in touch. Reporters may also contact me if they'd like to interview some of the people who are running this particular operation.
Updates to come. For now, an excerpt from today's al-Jazeera piece on the situation in Tunisia and the government's horrid record on human rights.
However, any discerning journalist who digs a little further can see that these protests are, like similar outbursts across the Arab world, the product of deep dissatisfaction at decades of sustained political repression, rampant corruption and routine silencing of all forms of political dissent.
Tunisia today exhibits all the symptoms of political decay that can be seen in surrounding Arab countries, with rising unemployment figures, widespread dissatisfaction and political unrest in the face of repeated extensions of so-called democratic mandates (President Ben Ali recently attempted to amend the Constitution to allow him a sixth term in office).
Any criticism of the President can lead to persecution and imprisonment, torture is routine and opposition parties are almost nonexistent. Not a single human rights monitoring group is allowed to operate legally and freely in the country.
Despite being a small country of just over 10 million, it has imprisoned more journalists than any other Arab country since 2000.