Even though it seems the president is keeping his promise on freedom of speech, I don't think it would be extravagant to get prepared for the worse.
So, what should I do to keep myself safe online?
Edit: I'm not worried about my physical safety, I'm just asking about protecting my privacy online if the government decides to go full on Big Brother.
P.S.: I tried to submit this question with a throwaway account, for obvious reasons, was told to "please slow down".
https://www.torproject.org/download/
Disable javascript whenever possible. Check your browser fingerprint.
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
Practice grey man tactics in your online and real life situations.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=grey+man
Download the U.S. Army survival guide, and others. Download other books, audiobooks, movies, games, and other entertainments to your physical devices in case the internet goes down, or certain services start to get blocked in your country/city/neighborhood. Get at least a small battery backup solution to keep your devices running if the power goes out. Augment with solar charging if possible.
For example, there are several posts of a screenshot of an aljazeera post, next to a not fully loaded screenshot of Blinken's twitter claiming that aljazeera mistranslated the tweet.
The narrative they are trying to push is that aljazeera is biased and therefore the president was justified in ordering its office raided.
Had the tweet's page been allowed to fully load, it would have shown that Blinken's tweet was part of a thread where the second tweet matches what Aljazeera said.
src: https://old.reddit.com/r/Tunisia/comments/out08w/influencers...
Even creepier, I saw that one of my acquaintances had shared one such post. I commented to inform them of the situation and linking the official tweet thread.
My comment got removed for "spam" (I only posted exactly one comment, once) and there was no option to appeal the removal. I contacted her through private channels and she claims she didn't even see the comment. (I presume the automated systems saw that tweet's link was being posted a lot??)
So not only is the false information kept up but attempts to correct it through discussion are automatically removed.
You may not be able to keep yourself online at all. Turning off the internet is part of the script for dealing with unrest.
If you can, try to setup a way to dial-up a foreign ISP with a modem. xs4all used to be a goto provider for this, but other comments say they're shutting down their dial-up service October 1. Might be useful as an available target to test with though.
Sometimes it's less expensive for outside countries to call you than for you to call out, but a quick look shows rates to Tunisia to be quite high, so probably figure out where is the least expensive to call, and then see if you can find a dial-up ISP there, and see it you can get a connection. Landline is obviously preferred here, but expense might be too great.
POP3 + TLS email with GPG if you can make it happen and a contact outside the country to help would work the best. International calling could get cut off too, of course, but it might be done later. And calling internationally might get you put on a list, so there's that, too.
Good luck and stay safe.
If you use any cryptocurrencies, put them in a cold wallet and encrypt + hide your keyphrase (not on the usb drive, somewhere that's safe and away from where you are).
After that... keep your head down and don't make yourself a target!
One additional note, even though you said you're not worried about your physical safety -- set up meeting points with your loved ones away from your home in case something should happen and you can't get back there. If someone runs into trouble and can't communicate, it can be helpful to know where to meet up (same suggestion I'd give to someone moving somewhere with lots of natural disasters, fwiw)
Deleting things off the net isn't reliable; but if you've said things you might worry about later you can go delete them now and at least you'll be able to point to that as a disavowal if need be. If you're really worried about something you've said, maybe update it with a retraction an/or publish such separately.
And of course VPNs etc etc... act like you're selling horse porn and keep some in stock, just for cover.
What about power, do you think they'd pull power from regions so you don't have mobile phones to communicate anymore? Phones are efficient enough that hand charging should be pretty doable, so you can charge whenever you need to access any info (be it a map, or other offline info that you downloaded).
Those institutions may crumble and you'll be hard pressed to get replacements if you don't already have. Passport, Id's, etc.
Would move out of the capitol city if possible.
Basically prepare for the equivalent of a natural disaster. Food, water, gasoline, radios. You can google that kind of thing.
Get as much cash as possible.
I don't know what gun laws are like but you could proabaly get ammo and guns and hide them somewhere. Those are always valuable during crisis.
Other people had great ideas for the digital life.
I’ll use thread to ask: what would be the cheapest way to have an emergency internet access? I guess Starlink kinda solves this problem but paying 100USD/m is a lot for a backup connection.
When the shit hits the fan, they'll be interested in even mundane are-the-shops-still-stocked / what-do-people-think etc. information. After it's over, they'll come and need "stringers", driving them around, translating, arranging interview partners, etc.
They have no trouble paying a few hundred $ per day (for the full-time role), and it can lead to something more permanent, abroad, whatever.
But, of course, be absolutely sure you're safe. The risk isn't so much zero-day exploits used to get into your phone, but your good friend selling you out, or someone fining some notes you threw away.
That's only if any of the parties actually object to the international press, which is relatively rare–domestic news is dangerous, international is PR. For 35 years, every time the US has bombed some country, there were CNN journalist on the ground. And while it has on occasion gone wrong, STDs have been more of a risk than the host countries.
Edit: just saw that you are a journalist, so this fits. I'd probably tend to prefer to appear to be as boring as possible. So unless you're already known anyway, driving a taxi may be preferable to running around with a notepad. And while encryption is better than plain text for anything that matters, having no data whatsoever is preferable to having encrypted data.
Also, nobody here knows what they're talking about. If in doubt, trust your instincts.
Their Surveillance Self Defense project was literally created for people like yourself. Stay safe!
Meanwhile, if you consider yourself more in a danger to become a 'collateral damage', so to speak, in a power struggle that 'others' do, then the most reasonable strategy could be just staying-low and having sufficient resources to live through such time.
Especially so if you have something that may make your position vulnerable (family, assets, business, prominence etc).
If you don't have an imminent need to flee (hopefully your assessment is sound), then not turning attention to yourself should let you weather this period of instability, just as for the most part of the populace.
Know your friends! Don't self-incriminate, know what you keep on your devices and storage. Be like everybody, just live your life, if you can afford not to choose a side.
Have a plan B (even C) about money, not just relying on the routine access way.
Freedom of speech _is_ important. However, if you don't consider yourself part of the struggle, then just wait it out.
Stay healthy!
I think you can get by on either the GCP or AWS free tiers for hosting the server (and/or DO at $5/month for unlimited bandwidth). At that point, you’ve got your own, controllable VPN that looks like a major cloud provider. So only if we they decide to really clamp down on “block all GCP/AWS/DO IPs” do you lose access.
If you use encryption at any level, always do that in a way that offers plausible deniability. If "they" suspect you are carrying sensitive information of national security importance, and you can't or don't want to decrypt that information on request, you, or someone you love, will likely be tortured to extract from you that information.
I read suggestions about using Ham Radio gear for long distance communications or slow Internet connection. Keep in mind that encryption is forbidden for Ham radio operators; you would immediately draw the attention, and finding a rogue transmitter is extremely easy even in case you transmit for very short intervals. Keep Ham Radio gear at hand as it could become useful, but don't use it thinking of privacy and anonymity. If things really go south, its ideal use is on a vehicle, each time from a different place.
Trust no one.
Don't fool yourself.
If you are a programmer, go work for a company that makes billing software or manufactures pottery. If you aren’t, go be a chef, accountant, or taxi driver. Anything that doesn’t require you to share your opinions on sociopolitical issues.
If you need to secure files use the proton drive beta for example.
The proton suite of tools is actually quite good and better then DIY or several cheap as dirt providers.
Also, this guide is a good starting point. [0]
[0]https://cltc.berkeley.edu/2021/01/20/cltc-report-an-evaluati...
If we believe your assessment that you're not worried about your physical safety, there's little you should worry about your "online" safety. Realistically, a government can't go Big Brother online while people enjoy their freedom in the real world - how would that work?
The one thing I can think of is if you frequently write opinions that the majority of Tunisians disagree with - it doesn't matter whether they're pro- or anti-government, if things get heated, people will search for targets to fix their rage on. People, people can be the worst. So try not to post too many incendiary opinions and keep them far from your real identity.
Also (it should be obvious to you by now, but) don't put too much weight on the opinions of people who can't spell your ruling party's name. (Yes, that includes this comment!) If I had a dime every time someone said "Get out of South Korea ASAP because there's going to be a war!" ...
What makes you think it hasn't already?
The algo is very aggressive in preventing you from posting too frequently... happens to me all the time (probably because the admins are required to review all comments and posts)
Berkeley has a report "An Evaluation of Online Security Guides for Journalists" which may prove helpful here: https://cltc.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Online_... .
I also remember University of Toronto had software tools to help journalists and political dissidents communicate securely online, however I don't have links at the moment.
You probably want to purchase multiple VPN services, from smaller providers, as the bigger ones will likely be blocked entirely. You also want to limit ad tracking as much as possible.
Your phone will likely leak your location and provide excellent means for tracking you. I am not an expert on this subject. Use an iphone, update to the latest ios, limit ad tracking in the settings, and disable background app communication (cut off internet access for most apps entirely). Use a VPN on your phone. See this article for an idea of how pervasive the tracking might be: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/locat...