Although Amar 404 specifically refers to the censorship of political activism on social media during the Ben Ali era, Louatah's title appears to run contrary to the spirit of Amar 404 His novel recounts the creation of a fictitious Internet application, '404', by a Franco-Algerian math prodigy, Allia, to prevent online content from going viral - an application that would have certainly impeded the popular uprisings in the early 2010s Given these socio-political consequences of Allia's application, readers are not surprised when Kader later uses 404 and his 5G network, Wilaya, to create a national counter-history [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Journal of North African Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )
404: by Sabri Louatah, Paris, Flammarion/Versilio, 2020, 368 pp., €21.00 (softcover), ISBN: 978-2-0815-1031-9