At the time, I was writing the still unfinished screenplay for Vietnam: People's Victory, the sequel to my 2008 Vietnam: American Holocaust, and I don't think I could have found Tunisia on a map without consulting Google first.
When I checked my email on the morning of 14 January 2011, I found a bulletin from EFF warning about a JavaScript exploit that the Ben Ali regime was using to track and arrest anti-government Tunisian bloggers.
It was my work in the area of Internet freedom that brought me awareness of the Arab Spring early on.
I decided to put my other tasks aside for a while and write a diary about it for the Daily Kos.
EMERGENCY: DKos Must Act Now to Protect Tunisian Bloggers! was the product and I never looked back.
This second anniversary would almost certainly have escaped my attention but for an impromptu twitter exchange with Robert Fisk yesterday.
Sunday, Common Dreams published Anonymous Comments, Gutless Trolls, and Why It's Time We All Stop Drinking This Digital Poison by Robert Fisk.
After reading it, I tweeted:
So now @robertfisk opposes anonymity on the Internet. #Assad will love that position too commondreams.org/view/2013/01/1… #Syria
— Clay Claiborne (@clayclai) January 13, 2013
Which provoked the following exchange:
@robertfisk bloggers in #Tunisia were arrested & disappeared when they could be IDed, in #Syria too. You & I have privileges every1 doesn't
— Clay Claiborne (@clayclai) January 13, 2013
@robertfisk which reminds me. this was the issue that started me writing about the Arab Spring 2 years ago tomorrow dailykos.com/story/2011/01/…
— Clay Claiborne (@clayclai) January 13, 2013
@clayclai true . . . I see your point. Anonymity can be useful when transmitting important info to the rest of the world #Syria #Tunisia
— Robert Fisk (@RobertFisk) January 13, 2013
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