Africa cracks down on social media - BBC News

I've been an Arabic linguist my whole career and have been through Africa plenty. I can say with a fair bit of authority that if any of the governments here want to censor things on social media or clamp down on it, it is not because they are worried about potential money lost to hackers or anything like that. They are trying to stay in power.
And to be fair, the lack of available jobs in Tunisia really started the Arab Spring. ابو زيزي lit himself on fire because after going to college he couldn't find work, so he opened a fruit stand. The government of Tunisia took his stand away (which was literally all he had) because they didn't like the location he picked to sell things.
Now, am i saying that I would light myself on fire for that? Clearly not, that shit is insane. But...I understand where the guy was coming from. He was absolutely broke, owed money for school and the government took everything he had. And honestly, there's been a lot of reform that's taken place because of it. Yeah, there will be power vacuums initially, and yeah, there is going to be blood. Hell, Syria is still cooking and it started because of the Arab Spring.
The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots from time to time. I'm sorry they have to endure this, but in the end it will be better; it has to.

Thank you for sharing.

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