Censorship of the internet in Morocco

The policy of the Morocco in the access to Internet was until recently rather liberal, the Government has encouraged the development of the media. Nevertheless, more than two years the trend reversed and cases of censorship are becoming more and more common.

Cases of censorship are primarily the result of the telephone operator and Internet dominant Morocco Telecom (a subsidiary of Vivendi), it is practiced in a manner totally arbitrary and opaque, Morocco telecom claiming technical problems for claim. It is characterized by the absence of recourse to a court decision, although the Morocco proclaims a “State of law”.

Morocco Telecom blocked several blogging sites, such as LiveJournal. Reporters without borders says that the Morocco often censor political websites claiming independence of Western Sahara. Google Earth was also blocked by Morocco Telecom at a time for reasons that remain obscure, some hypotheses suggest that the goal would be to make the difficult location of the Royal palaces, others say that it is to hide the locations of secret prisons. This block is completely arbitrary and is outside any judicial procedure, what can that generate the most far-fetched hypotheses as to his motives.

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