Laila Shereen Sakr,<i> Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives</i>

a group of young Tunisian hacktivists triumphantly entered the much-despised headquarters of the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), which was housed in a three-story villa in the capital's leafy Mahrajne district.Sitting in the villa's basement were the hard drives and servers used to implement the Ben Ali regime's ruthless blocking and censorship policies, which for more than a decade had been used to silence dissent online.Once gaining access to the machines, the activists-including Moez Chekchouk, who later became the chairman and CEO of the ATI, and Slim Amamou, who served as the first secretary for sport and youth in the country's transitional government-renamed the space "404 Lab."It was a direct nod to their victorious campaign to dismantle the regime of blocking and censorship and to usher in a new era of freedom and democracy.But the name "404 Lab" was no coincidence.Styled on the 404 out-of-service landing page-the common destination for websites once deemed off-limits by the regime-the meme "Ammar 404" had been one of the many creative rallying cries for the motley combination of bloggers, journalists, artists, and students who composed the loosely formed cyberdissident movement at the heart of the Arab uprisings.

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Publication Details

Journal
International journal of communication
Published
2026-02-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.65476/7wsf4m52
Primary Topic
Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
Type
article
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0.00
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article

Laila Shereen Sakr, Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives

Nathaniel Greenberg
International journal of communication
Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
article

Laila Shereen Sakr, Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives

Nathaniel Greenberg
article en

Abstract

a group of young Tunisian hacktivists triumphantly entered the much-despised headquarters of the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), which was housed in a three-story villa in the capital's leafy Mahrajne district.Sitting in the villa's basement were the hard drives and servers used to implement the Ben Ali regime's ruthless blocking and censorship policies, which for more than a decade had been used to silence dissent online.Once gaining access to the machines, the activists-including Moez Chekchouk, who later became the chairman and CEO of the ATI, and Slim Amamou, who served as the first secretary for sport and youth in the country's transitional government-renamed the space "404 Lab."It was a direct nod to their victorious campaign to dismantle the regime of blocking and censorship and to usher in a new era of freedom and democracy.But the name "404 Lab" was no coincidence.Styled on the 404 out-of-service landing page-the common destination for websites once deemed off-limits by the regime-the meme "Ammar 404" had been one of the many creative rallying cries for the motley combination of bloggers, journalists, artists, and students who composed the loosely formed cyberdissident movement at the heart of the Arab uprisings.

International journal of communicationVol. 20
George Mason University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 63%
Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
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Laila Shereen Sakr,<i> Arabic Glitch: Technoculture, Data Bodies, and Archives</i> — Nathaniel Greenberg · International journal of communication (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS