ENNEMIS of the INTERNET / 12 MARch 2012 / world day against Cyber censorship//////////////////////////// 67
While filtering errors can be reported by email to filtrage@ati.tn, ATI states in its notices that it will not assume responsibility for them. However, filtering was not implemented as smoothly as expected. On February 27, 2012, Moez Chakchouk told Reporters Without Borders that “our technical services were only able to apply it for state-owned companies and public community networks. As for the five Internet service providers, all attempts resulted in serious declines in performance (Internet traffic fluidity at the transit node level).” He explained that such problems were due to “exponential growth” (+60% in 2011 vs. 2010) of the international bandwidth“ – “a growth that ATI can no longer handle for lack of the financial resources (formerly provided by the Tunisian government) needed to put the filtering system back into operation.” Reporters Without Borders denounced the potential resumption of filtering as a way of resorting to the former repressive measures and listed the technical, legal, and financial risks that this would entail, including overblocking, exorbitant costs and the privatization of censorship, which would be delegated to a technical intermediary. Reporters Without Borders is concerned about a return to Ben Ali era practices and fears that filtering of one kind of content may be a prelude to the censoring of other types of content. Widespread filtering is totally inconsistent with Internet neutrality and the freedom of expression values advocated by the Higher Authority for the Realization of Revolutionary Objectives, Political Reform, and Democratic Transition.
E-governance and the growth of free software?
The ATI has just officially launched tor.mirror.tn, a mirror of the TOR website featuring its popular circumvention and anonymity software, previously used by cyberdissidents against Ammar 404. Through TOR, Moez Chakchouk told the webdo.tn website that he “wants to encourage the use of free software platforms, as well as offer a product that guarantees better navigation security against malware scripts.” Installation of the TOR mirror site in Tunisia is a first in the Arab world, in Africa and even in Asia, according to Mr. Chakchouk. Many Internet users view this initiative as a way to measure the success of the Tunisian Revolution, which in the past was an arena for censorship software tests.
Future of the Tunisian Internet : Projects and debates The restructuring of the Tunisian Internet Agency under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies is one of the items that the transition government is working on. In Moez Chakchouk’s opinion, “The ATI will be able to operate in accordance with international good practices as an Internet exchange point.” He believes that the ATI is a candidate for membership in the European Internet Exchange Association2 (EuroIX) that connects ISP networks and permits the exchange of Internet traffic at the European level. Liberalizing the Internet market is still a key objective, along with fighting against the re-emergence of filtering techniques, which should remain in the past. Including Internet access as a fundamental right in Tunisia’s new Constitution would further anchor Tunisia on a steady course leading to Internet freedom.
One positive sign : according to Global Voices1, is that the political class is now using, in sending out its messages to the population, the very tools that the state previously repressed : “Twitter is also the arena in which Tunisian politicians express their frustrations about their own parties’ lack of organization or the slow pace of the current government.” “Political leaders in Tunisia are eager to have more transparent relations with their electorate, and that now seems to mean making use of the social media.”
1 http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/02/06/tunisia-politicians-anddeputies-opt-for-open-governance-through-social-media/
2 https://www.euro-ix.net/