Tunisia Blocks Wikileaks & Everyone Referencing it

Just as the stories are starting to get interesting, the Tunisian authorities block Wikileaks and every other form of leaks that mention Tunisia based on cables from the whistleblower site.

Soon after the cables surfaced activists around the world started creating websites to tackle specific topics and countries drawing from the plethora of information the cables provide. Tunisian activists didn’t waste time, Tunileaks was born.

Tunileaks was created by Nawaat to offer a central place for Tunisians and everyone one else interested in discussing and unraveling information related to the Tunisian government found in the US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks.

But being the oppressive regime they are, the Tunisian government found this an opportunity to whip out that blacklist and add Tunileaks to the mix. But it turned out to be a bit more complicated than they had anticipated.

First reported by GlobalVoicesOnline Tunisian authorities first blocked http://tunileaks.appspot.com. One day later, they blocked Google App Engine’s IP address (209.85.229.141) to block Tunileaks under https, making appspot.com partially unavailable in the country.

If you think it ends there you’re sadly mistaken. It turns out Al-Akhbar newspaper, a Lebanese publication was also blocked after it picked up on some of the cables from the US Embassy in Tunisia released by Wikileaks and published them online.

So if you can read this post in Tunisia, it means Tunisian authorities haven’t yet gone on a Firewall frenzy. It means that Tunisian authorities haven’t resorted to putting up a cyber great-wall-of-China to block the world its citizens from getting access to some of its dirty laundry.

by Ahmad F Al-Shagra
TNW Middle East