Zawaya

The Emergence of Cyber-Activism in Morocco

By: Rachid Jankari

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts… are all social networking tools that are beginning to attract Moroccan activists to assert their claims before the government and international community.

The emergence of the use of these tools of digital activism is partially explained by the boom in terms of Internet penetration and computer equipment in Morocco. “Today, the kingdom has 800,000 Internet subscribers (95% broadband), 8 million Internet users, 22 million GSM customers, 30,000 domain names, and more than 120 computers are sold annually”, says Hamza Abouleftah, web specialist and director of the company Genious Communications.

This exponential growth of the Internet and technology infrastructure has an impact on the appropriation of social networks. Morocco’s network on Facebook has now over 124,000 members, and the community of bloggers and users of micro-blogging platforms like Twitter continues to expand to become more influential and active.

Beyond the figures of membership and usage, the increase in cases of infringement on freedom of expression – whether online or offline – has led to the realization of punctual actions of cyber-activism.

The trigger of cyber-activism was linked particularly to imprisonment because of Facebook and blogs, as well as Internet censorship in Morocco (Google Earth, Youtube, LiveJournal and websites of the Islamist party “Justice and Charity”).

Flash Back. In 2008, a young engineer, Fouad Mourtada, created a fake profile of the king’s brother on Facebook. Consequently, he was imprisoned for disrespecting the royal family. This case benefited from the exploitation of different paths of digital mobilization and the reappropriation of the virtual space.

Act 2, the case of blogger Erraji. A young blogger from Agadir was imprisoned – under the press code – after he published an article criticizing the social policy of the king, in September 2008. This case intensified this trend of cyber-activism in the kingdom.

Beyond the case of the prisoner of Facebook and the blogger Erraji, the Internet was an arena of mobilization for multiple cases of web censorship. Internet users have used different means (SMS, blogs, Facebook…) to defend the right of access to different services and websites.

Several pages of support and solidarity have been created on Facebook to unite a large number of Internet users, and also compile all electronic materials (photos, posters, banners, icons) produced on each case of imprisonment or censorship of websites and Internet services.

On a different note, Youtube has put out several scandals and attacks on public and private freedoms. An example of this is the famous video of the Targist Snipper (northern Morocco) that featured gendarmes caught on tape as they accepted bribes. Podcasting was also used to lay bare the atrocities of security forces against demonstrators in Sidi Ifni in 2008.

“It’s a sure thing that the phenomenon of online mobilization is still embryonic. However, it has also become a heavy trend. Moroccan activists are increasingly using ICTs to defend and promote their claims since computer equipment and the widespread access to Internet are witnessing a sustained growth”, says Taher Alami, a web consultant and director of the company Abweb Consulting.

This analysis of the strong potential of ICTs as a vehicle for mobilization also derives its relevance from the fact that Arab countries, including Morocco, are recording increasing numbers of cases of infringement on digital freedoms by imposing restrictions on the Internet as a new channel of communication and social mobilization.