The Tunisian Diaspora: between ‘digital riots’ and web activism

This article deals with the increasing connections among the Tunisian diaspora and its homeland provided by a widespread use of the social Web. The main aim is to evaluate to what extent the Tunisian diaspora has contributed to a wider diffusion of cyberactivism concerning legitimate claims for democracy and human rights, considered as one of the main driving forces behind the 2011 revolution. After introducing some epistemological and methodological issues related to the study of the Web, the article deepens the history of Tunisian migrants’ online activism in order to grasp connections with the later configuration of the cyberdissidence in their homeland. The last section is dedicated to interpretation of the graphs in order to compare the research hypotheses with the results stemming from the e-Diasporas project methodology.