Hirak in time of Covid-19: mobilizing from the streets to the digital space in Algeria

On 22 February 2019, thousands of Algerians protested against Bouteflika's decision to run for a fifth term in office. Despite the former president stepped down under pressure, the Hirak movement has continued to mobilize against the “corrupted clique” of generals, businessmen, and ruling party politicians that has for years surrounded the president and that are still in place. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, national authorities exploited rules to constrain the pandemic in order to shut down the demonstrations. These obstacles, however, did not represent a setback for the protests, as a new wave of the cyber warfare started on the social digital networks, with activists running new social media campaigns. Authorities reacted by shifting the repression to the digital space, by shutting down websites, Facebook pages and twitter accounts. Thus, protesters and their opponents fought back online by creating new virtual spaces of contention, each side accusing the other of engaging internet trolls, fake news, fake information, fake accounts in order to discredit the protests. Digital media then became the battleground of a revolutionary process where roles and actors are blurred. Based on ethnography, the article scrutinizes the shift from streets mobilizations to online activisms, and it accounts for the impact of the virtual space on dynamics of contentious politics. Expected findings show how online activism shapes activists relationships with other actors, such as socio-political adversaries and national authorities. Overall, the article provides empirical evidence on the controversial role of digital media in a highly politicized environment.