It took the dramatic suicide of Muhammad Buazizi, demonstrations across the country, a week of bloody attempts at police repression, and the refusal of the army to support the regime, for Tunisia’s president to leave the position he had occupied for 23 years. And for much of the international community to discover the routinized corruption of the Ben Ali-Trabelsi family and their stranglehold on the infrastructure of a country lauded as an economic success. For casual observers Tunisia is summed up by its beachside resorts, political stability and general security, an example of a moderate, democratic and Western regime, and a bastion of women’s rights. These images owe as much to the stereotypical despotism and misogyny of Middle Eastern states as to any serious study of Tunisia. The contrast between these images and the eleventh-hour revelations of political corruption and socio-economic inequalities cannot be attributed to secrecy. Journalists, human rights activists, and bloggers had actively challenged the postcard clichés of Ben Ali-era Tunisia long before the Wikileaks cables were published. This paper historicizes the role of the internet as opening a space for Tunisian dissidents through blogs, discussion forums, and music where they went past the surface of Ben Ali’s regime. It also traces the process of extending state repression into cyberspace which offered increasing possibilities for policing citizens earning Tunisia the reputation as an internet enemy. Hailed as the first internet-based revolution for the role that social media played in overcoming regime censorship, media blackouts, and galvanizing the population, I examine whether crowd sourcing and increased media coverage challenged the stereotypical images of Tunisia. I problematize the speed with which international attention turned away from a revolution-in-progress concerned with the potential of a regional domino effect or an “Islamist threat.” What role did bloggers play in sharing information within Tunisia and abroad, and in publicizing the abuses committed by Ben Ali? Did this lead to increased transparency by the transitional government? While their music, cartoons, videos and photos sharing contributed to direct coverage of the protests by January 2011, this paper questions the impact of their voices in coverage of the revolution and the policies of the interim government.