Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I have a very dear friend whom I call ‘M’ in my public-facing writing. (And for the record, M calls me ‘CB,’ an abbreviation for the loving nickname “crazy b*tch.”)

In January 2012, we had planned a trip to Algeria so I could do research for my thesis on stereotypes regarding French Muslims of Algerian descent, a second-class citizen situation stemming from the colonial era. M’s visa did not come through, and for some strange reason, mine did. I’m crazy, but I wasn’t about to go to Algeria for the first time by myself. So, we pivoted at the last minute.

M created an itinerary of Paris to Tunis, Tunisia, to Marseilles, France, replicating in a very obtuse, simplified way the immigrant’s journey.

In our last-minute configurations, we did not notice that our plane landed in Tunis on January 14, 2012. We landed in Tunisia on the one-year anniversary of the abdication of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled Tunisia for 24 years. This event launched the “Arab Spring,” and the credit for that revolution is often credited to social media.

Angel, why are you telling us this strange story?

Whether it’s Trump getting thrown off Facebook, Elon Musk buying and rebranding Twitter or Biden signing the TikTok ban, social media has power. Social media has power because information has power, ideas have power, opinions have power.

In our hotel, Grand Hôtel de la France, where they stored our passports in tiny wooden cubbyholes, we only had internet in the tiled lobby. In the evenings, everyone would gather in the tiny hall and smoke cigarettes while scrolling on their phones.

Social Media was blocked by the government.

I would Facetime my daughter and send emails, but there would be no Facebook updates or Instagram posts.

Travels in Yemen

In April 2014, we traveled to Old Sana’a in Yemen. I suppose no one realized then how fortunate I was to visit and stay in the old city. (A drone strike by Americans had killed some civilians about 48 hours before our arrival so I was warned not to reveal my nationality.) The city is more than 2,500 years old, making it one of the oldest living cities in the world. I don’t recall as much government interference with the internet there at that time.

In January 2016, M and I visited Mogadishu, and I don’t remember social media blackouts, but there I experienced constant monitoring by armed guards.