In a country where the government has had a short fuse with its critics, the tech-savvy youth of Tunisia used social networking sites to draw global attention to recent anti-government protests that toppled their country's autocratic leader last week.
A wave of protests began after the suicide of a Tunisian man who set himself on fire last month.
After the man's death, young Tunisians began to increasingly voice their opposition to the long-standing regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- the iron-fisted, long-time leader -- and the lack of economic and political freedom and related opportunities in their country.
Voice of America reporter Lisa Bryant told CTV's Canada AM that the protests are a call for change "by the vast majority of frustrated young people," but are "very much supported by middle-aged and older people, too."
Protests raged across the country for the past month and eventually reached the capital city of Tunis, which prompted Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia last Friday.
Along the way, young Tunisians have used videos, pictures and words to show the world what is going on in their country. And by putting those messages online, they have spurred individuals and media organizations around the world to take a closer look at their cause.
CNN journalist Tim Lister said that Twitter and Facebook have been "the real motors" of the protest movement that led to the recent ouster of Ben Ali.
"The scale of the protests became very quickly noticeable to the outside world on Flickr, on Twitter, on Facebook and that attracted the attention of some of the Arabic news networks…and they began to cover this," Lister told CTV's Canada AM from Atlanta on Monday morning.
"And since then, some of the bloggers and activists have got out there and they've put up on their Facebook pages really graphic pictures of the protests. Some protesters holding tear gas grenades, showing: ‘this is what they're doing to us.'"
Dario Thuburn, a correspondent with Agence France-Presse, said few protesters have used the social networking websites to organize their demonstrations.
But Thuburn told CTV News Channel on Monday that "the main effect of the Twitter and Facebook (campaigns) has been promoting, drawing international attention to the process and sort of encouraging them in that way -- which is a very important role, but maybe not such a direct role as you might think in actually organizing the protests."
Ben Ali eventually said he would call new elections. But he ended up fleeing the country on Friday before any changes took place.
And as one California writer noted on her Twitter feed, it wasn't computers that took to the streets and pushed Ben Ali from office.
"Please stop trying to give credit to Wilileaks (sic), or Twitter, or YouTube for the toppling of Ben Ali. The Tunisian people did it," Laila Lalami wrote on Twitter the day Ben Ali left the country.
By the end of the weekend, Tunisia had two other leaders take his place -- first it was Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi who assumed power temporarily, and then Fouad Mebazza, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, who is now the interim president.
On Monday, the interim leaders of Tunisia announced the formation of a new, national unity government. Their hope is to quell the unrest that has caught the attention of the web and the world, though it remains to see if their plan will work.
With files from The Associated Press
