Internet Plays Role In North African Revolutions

The rise of the Internet across the globe is playing a profound role in a series of revolutions now sweeping North Africa. Whether used as a communications tool by those protesting and challenging autocratic rulers and governments, or having net connections severed, and forcing workarounds, like prior generation dial-up connections, the prominence of the net is being seen clearly as millions of citizens take to the streets in a whole series of mostly Arab nations.

This all began with a man burning himself in protest in Tunisia, last month. This month he died of his burns. Now it has become a Tunisami. That phrase was coined by Egyptian protestors as they assembled, by the hundreds of thousands, in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, Suez and other Egyptian cities, calling for the ouster of the 30-year old government of Hosni Mubarak. Prior to the Egyptian protests, protestors in Tunis, Tunisia had stunned the world, forcing their dictatorial ruler, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee the country.