Интернет-цензура в Тунисе: от отмены к новым ограничениям.

Internet censorship in Tunisia significantly decreased in January 2011, following the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as the new acting government removed filters on social networking sites such as YouTube. The success of the Tunisian Revolution offers a chance to establish greater freedom of expression in Tunisia, a country previously subject to very strict censorship, especially online. At the same time success in this effort is not certain. In response to the dramatic events and opportunities of the Arab Spring, in March 2011, Reporters Without Borders moved Tunisia and Egypt from its "Internet enemies" list to its list of countries "under surveillance". However, there are also warnings that Internet censorship in some countries might increase following the events of the Arab Spring.

In 2012 the OpenNet Initiative found no evidence of Internet filtering in the political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools areas. In 2011 Reporters Without Borders listed Tunisia as "Under Surveillance". The provisional government of national unity that took over following Ben Ali's departure immediately proclaimed complete freedom of information and expression as a fundamental principle and on 17 January 2011 abolished the information ministry. Internet censorship was immediately lifted, as President Ben Ali promised in his 13 January address, but some online controls were still in place in early February. In May, the Permanent Military Tribunal of Tunis ordered four Facebook pages blocked for attempting "to damage the reputation of the military institution and, its leaders, by the publishing of video clips and, the circulation of comments and, articles that aim to destabilize the trust of citizens in the national army, and spread disorder and chaos in the country." This resurgence of Internet censorship lead to the resignation of blogger and political activist Slim Amamou from his post as Secretary of State for Youth and Sport on 23 May. On May 26 a group of lawyers obtained a court order forcing the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block porn sites on the grounds that they posed a threat to minors and Muslim values. The ATI went to court in an attempt to block the order, but its request was rejected on June 13. The ATI began to comply with the court's order in stages on June 15. On August 15 a Tunis appeals court upheld the previous decisions requiring the ATI to block access to pornographic websites. The ATI is undergoing an appeals process with country's highest court on the grounds that it cannot uphold the ruling because it lacks the financial and technical means to implement a sufficient filtering and censorship system. Reporters Without Borders fears that porn site filtering could lead to further reversals in recently lifted censorship policies. They assert that the provisional government's generalized, undefined filtering infringes on the principles of Network neutrality and promises made by the Tunisian High Commission for the Realization of Revolutionary Goals, Political Reforms, and Democratic Transition after the Revolution. The ATI's appeals process is not yet complete. Tunisia held elections on 23 October 2011 to create a post revolution Constituent Assembly. Mongi Marzouk was appointed as Tunisia's Minister of Communication Technologies to the newly formed Jebali Cabinet on 20 December 2011. Marzouk's early political career demonstrated his will to maintain the provisional government's proclamation to freedom of information and expression. On 4 September 2012 at the National Forum on Internet Governance, Marzouk formally lifted Internet censorship in Tunisia and announced that Tunisia has seen the “end of (error message) Ammar 404.”. Two days later Tunisia attended the Freedom Online Conference in Nairobi, a platform for coalition members to further the agenda of Internet governance. During the Conference, Tunisia officially became the third African member in the international coalition. Tunisia continued its promotion of uncensored Internet at the 2012 ICT4ALL Forum on September 17–20 in Hammamet. There, Marzouk declared that bilateral and multilateral discussions would resume in lieu of ICT4ALL's Forum policy recommendations for Tunisia's socio economic development. Cyber activists are skeptical of the new regime's policies. Sleh Edine Kchouk, President of the Tunisian Pirate Party, believes that continuous Internet monitoring and Ben Ali era practices are still present. Following Marzouk's announcement to lift Internet censorship, Kchouk notes “Tunisia has always embraced advanced technologies when it comes to the virtual world, in theory. But in practice, it’s completely different.”. In September, the United Nations appealed to Tunisia to operationalize its freedom of expression and information policies with respect to the media. Despite the country's latest Internet policy reforms, censorship is allegedly enacted upon media activists that fail to comply with Jebali Cabinet member's ideals of Tunisian “tradition” and “culture.”

The Tunisian authorities practiced different sorts of Internet surveillance and request that service providers such as Internet cafés be partners in controlling Internet use. For example, the authorities monitored Internet cafés, required Internet users to show IDs before they could use the Internet in some regions, and held Internet café operators responsible for their clients’ online activities. There was also technical surveillance where downloading or e mail attachments went through a central server. In order to protect public order and national security, a 1998 post and telecommunications law allowed authorities to intercept and check the content of email messages. Filtering of e mail messages of government opponents has been reported. Global Voices Advocacy Director and Tunisia Activist Sami Ben Gharbia conducted a test from the Netherlands with two Tunisia based activists and confirmed by logging into their e mail accounts from the Netherlands that what he saw was not what the activists saw when they logged in from Tunisia, and that they could not access all of the messages they received. In early 2011 there was increasing evidence that the private e mail accounts of Tunisian citizens along with login details of their Facebook pages had been targeted by phishing scripts put in place by the government. There were increasing incidences of censorship in this manner as many dissidents were blocked from using the internet.