Algorithms of Oppression?

In the past decade, governments have become more cognizant of how cybersecurity threats can impact domestic and national security within political, economic, and military institutions. This chapter provides an overview of post-revolutionary Tunisia’s cyber strategies. It discusses Tunisia’s cyber history, infrastructure, and legislation. The chapter then outlines current trends in Tunisian cybersecurity. In November of 2013, the Tunisian government founded a new surveillance agency called the Technical Telecommunications Agency (ATT) to “exploit national monitoring systems of telecommunication traffic” and to offer “technical support to the judicial investigations into the information systems of crimes and communications”. The agency is controversial as some have called it Tunisia’s own “law abusing agency” or the “Tunisian NSA” which many human rights organizations and privacy advocacy groups have criticized for its lack of transparency and vague definitions of its tasks in investigating crimes.