In scenes eerily reminiscent of Algeria's revolution, thousands took to the streets in Tunisia in late 2010 and early 2011, following the spectacular suicide by self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi, a fruit-seller arrested for failing to produce a permit (at the time it was rumored widely that he was a college graduate unable to find a job but this later turned out not to be the case).

In a police state where there is one police officer for every forty people, Internet access was censored and television carefully controlled, this moment ignited otherwise impossible resistance. With more than half the population under thirty but with little sense of opportunity and a long-standing autocracy, Tunisia is typical of the region. The situation in Tunisia followed street protests in Algeria over price rises in basic commodities in December 2010 that were quickly reversed in January 2011 to keep the peace. As in 1989 in Eastern Europe, the repressive machinery was unclear what to do, given the lack of traditional targets. Quickly conceded were freedom of the Internet and television, as well as the promise by long-standing autocrat Ben Ali to stand down in 2014. As de Tocqueville noted in relation to France and its revolution, "the most dangerous moment for a bad regime is when it begins to reform itself."

I "watched" the events of 14 January 2011 in Tunisia in real time on Twitter at #sidibouzid, the name of the town where the student set himself on fire. Video of police violence (popout video to play) circulated along with rumors of an Army coup, that the family of Ben Ali had been arrested at the airport and that Communist leaders arrested in the morning had been freed. Alongside this, a stream of news reports from al-Jazeera, Le Monde and the Guardian. But it was on Twitter that news broke first and most reliably, both from within Tunisia and without. As the regime crumbled, more and more posts were in Arabic from within the country.

Many celebrated the triumph of people power as Ben Ali's regime fell apart, but others cautioned that no real change had yet been accomplished. Reports of continuing police violence and arrests by militia interrupted the celebrations and denunciations of the old regime. It was remarkable to "watch," as tweets poured in faster than the computer could process them, telling a broadly coherent story but also conveying the uncertainties of the moment.

The "demonstration" had formed around the phrase "Dégage!" or "Resign!" By speaking the word and aligning their bodies in the way of danger, Tunisians made their speech act performative and compelled the dictator to respond after an extraordinary forty years of autocracy. The danger inherent in the metaphor of being the "father" of the people is that one day the "children" grow up and demand their autonomy.

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