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While Facebook is usually used to post news and snapshots of everyday life, Tunisians have made it a major political arena. Citizens and politicians debate and frolic there all day long. It is also by a simple Facebook post that President Kaïs Saïed notified the extension of the freeze of the Assembly to his fellow citizens.
From our correspondent in Tunis,
It is a discipline that Tunisians practice in high doses and which has no equal to ensure the tone of their ten fingers. Compulsively, many of them share their opinions, analyzes or political rants.
Rym El Ghid Souid, dentist by profession, is a follower of this practice. “ Sometimes I post a status every hour since July 25. It’s compulsive indeed, she admits. During the revolution, at the beginning, we were euphoric because we really believed that there was going to be change. Then we saw our country fall back into the same ways as before and the desire to do or say things faded a little. This desire is coming back today because what is happening in the country is not trivial. Hope is reborn. »
Rym is one of those Tunisians who believe that by freezing the Assembly, President Kaïs Saïed has rid Tunisia of a corrupt political class and working only to keep it in power. Decisive positions that earn him frequent clashes with Internet users who disagree with his analysis.
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Debates, witticisms and virtual brawls
A virtual arena, Facebook also often takes on the appearance of a boxing ring in Tunisia, as exchanges around the country can quickly deteriorate. ” People are passionate and sometimes even hate speech and that worries me a bit. The debate is not at all appeased. I think what kindles the feelings is this expectation. The wait is getting long. We don’t understand why it takes so long explicitly Rym.
To this day, Tunisians are still waiting to learn more about their president’s “road map”. To fill the void, debates, speculations and other skirmishes are going well. Virtual altercations embellished with witticisms often very well felt as Facebook has also become the place par excellence where “tanbir” is exercised, this humor bordering on cynicism which Tunisians love. Memes and other satirical diversions abound there, allowing to relax an atmosphere that is sometimes heavy as the future is uncertain.
Reigning supreme over the country since he assumed exceptional powers on July 25, Kaïs Saïed also communicates with his fellow citizens via the official Facebook page of the presidency. He who refuses to give interviews inevitably tastes little interactivity. The probability of seeing him do a live t-shirt on Tik-Tok, like his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, is science fiction. Carthage is therefore content to relay the president’s activities on Facebook.
It is also on this network, by a lapidary post, that the extension of the freeze of Parliament was announced on the night of Monday 23 to Tuesday 24 August 2021. A choice which responds to a double logic according to Kerim Bouzouita, specialist of political communication: ” The first rule of political communication is to address the target audience through the channel used by that audience. However, Kaïs Saïed’s target audience are Tunisian citizens who have political consumption habits on Facebook, so he only settled on the information and consumption habits of his target. Moreover, Kaïs Saïed does not believe in intermediate bodies. He is a follower of direct governance – “open gov “- so anything in between him and the”people “, it simply does without. »
Elected officials who put on a show for social networks
Before the freezing of the Assembly was decreed, the race for the buzz had, it seems, stimulated the creativity of certain Tunisian elected officials launched in a race for “likes” which will end up costing them dearly. In Parliament, we have seen deputies in a night sit-in – “sleep-in” some would say – wrapped in duvets. We also saw Abir Moussi, member of the Free Destourien Party, motorcycle helmet on his head to signify the alleged threats to his physical integrity.
Then, the show quickly turned into a tragicomedy when, armed with smartphones, elected officials from opposing political sides engaged in verbal, and sometimes even physical, confrontations of great violence. All obviously broadcast live on social networks, making Parliament take on the appearance of a great reality TV show, each more incredible than the next.
For Kerim Bouzouita, this “outrageous” spectacle was clearly calculated. ” Some deputies have played with fire, that of Facebook’s algorithms. TO At a certain point, Facebook favored the political clash, the political spectacle, the sensational and therefore the Tunisian deputies rushed into it. They wanted to increase their visibility and take over public space. »
What arouse the anger of Tunisians whose patience ended up eroding at the same time as their purchasing power. This view of the elected representatives of the people giving themselves a spectacle on the web could hasten, moreover, the decision of Kaïs Saïed to freeze the Assembly. ” This phenomenon favored the emergence of the providential man in the figure of Kaïs Saïed. We can say that Parliament simply committed suicide », estime Kerim Bouzouita.
While Tunisia is moving, according to some observers, towards a possible revision of the Constitution, or even a change of political regime, it is a safe bet that the keyboards of Tunisians will not cool down anytime soon …
Ultra-connected Tunisians
There are an estimated 7,650,000 Facebook accounts in the country for a population of 11.69 million, or a penetration rate of 66%. By way of comparison, it is 59% in France.
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