Global Voices Online

Countries:

Morocco

Topics:

Freedom of Speech, Politics

Yesterday, May 25, 2007, it has been reported by numerous Moroccan blogger that Morocco has blocked access to YouTube video sharing website. There have been many ongoing speculations that the ban followed the broadcasting of material critical of the country's king and pro-Western Sahara. This is the third major sites blocked by the Moroccan filtering regime after Google Earth and Livejournal.

Posted by Sami Ben Gharbia

 Print Version

Share This

Share this article with social bookmarking

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon
• Google Bookmarks
• Technorati
• reddit

Send this by E-mail

E-mail It

• Recipient's Address:
• Your Name:
• Your Address:

16 Responses to
“Morocco blocks access to YouTube”

1. May 26th, 2007 at 22:13 pm
   Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead » Blog Archive » Youtube blocked in Morocco:
   1

   [...] Since yesterday Maroc Telecom has blocked all access to Youtube. The Moroccan blogosphere (blogoma) is totally surprised by the move and angered. There were no reasons given why Youtube was blocked. But the speculations are that it might have to do something with the presence of Polisario-clips (Polisario being the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that were criticized the king. [...]

2. May 27th, 2007 at 0:45 am
   Naim:
   2

   Hi

   Thanks for the mention of my blog but I need to correct some informations. First of all, Morocco didn’t block access to Youtube. It’s Maroc Telecom, the main telecom operator owned by Vivendi. The other telecom networks (Wana and Meditel) still have access to Youtube and Google Earth.

   Have a nice day.

3. May 27th, 2007 at 1:32 am
   Dis Moi! » Blog Archive » Coup de ciseaux au Maroc:
   3

   [...] Lire ici , ici et ici. [...]

4. May 27th, 2007 at 11:21 am
   Omar:
   4

   I have just read the posting about Morocco blocking YouTube - living in Morocco I can state that it is not (blocked), I have been abele to log-on and view film clips without any problems what so ever.

5. May 27th, 2007 at 15:05 pm
   The Morocco Report » On free speech:
   5

   [...] So props to The View From Fez, Youssef (here and here), Agora, Hchica, El Hafa, Larbi, Sami ben Gharbia at GVO, A Moroccan in Washington D.C. and anyone else who is making an effort to open a dialogue on this subject. [...]

6. May 27th, 2007 at 19:03 pm
   YouTube bloqueado en Marruecos -- PlooSolutions:
   6

   [...] Se cree que el motivo principal es la aparición de vídeos del Frente Polisario en la página, además de varios vídeos en los que se criticaba al Rey. Maroc Telecom es la principal proveedor de internet del país, y también tiene bloqueado el acceso a Google Maps y a LiveJournal. [...]

7. May 27th, 2007 at 22:40 pm
   Ad:
   7

   The person who posted the news about Maroc Telecom blocking YouTube is nothing but an anti-Moroccan policy towards our Sahara. Besides, there are hundreds of ways to express any disagreements on anyhting online. YouTube is not special on this.

8. May 27th, 2007 at 23:45 pm
   What exactly happened? at Stop the censorship:
   8

   [...] Global Voices Online » Morocco blocks access to YouTube [...]

9. May 28th, 2007 at 11:14 am
   Marruecos bloquea el acceso a YouTube | La brujula verde:
   9

   [...] El pasado día 25 de mayo muchos bloguers marroquis reportaron el bloqueo que su gobierno estaba haciendo a YouTube. Dicho bloqueo se viene a sumar al de Google Earth y LiveJournal, y parece que tiene que ver con material crítico con el rey y a favor del Sáhara Occidental. [...]

10. May 28th, 2007 at 17:08 pm
    x:
    10

    I confirm, we are not able to access youtube via Maroc Telecom, don’t know why they blocked the access…

11. May 29th, 2007 at 0:14 am
    YouTube in Marokko geblockt » Suchmaschinen Blog:
    11

    [...] bzw. kritische YouTube Videos über den König von Marokko, ein Grund für die Sperrung sein [...]

12. May 30th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
    Morocco: ban on YouTube lifted at Global Voices Advocacy:
    12

    [...] petition has been launched by Maghrebism to protest the block of the video-sharing site Youtube by Maroc Telecom (Vivendi International). “We demand that Maroc Telecom and Vivendi Universal immediately stop the [...]

13. July 12th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
    kate:
    13

    plse explain i log on to u tube daily so enough of this bs

14. August 19th, 2007 at 22:36 pm
    oakweb:
    14

    More services like http://www.strongvpn.com will pop up as users try to get a outside handle on governmental controls.

    There’s really no way to block sites, I don’t know why they try.

15. October 5th, 2007 at 14:58 pm
    MUSTAPHA:
    15

    Hi Guys

    Could you please get your facts together before writing any thing. as it is very dangerous to start guessing about things………………

16. February 27th, 2008 at 8:42 am
    Morocco Travel:
    16

    This is not true