The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

YouTube blocked in Morocco

Why is YouTube blocked in Morocco? I remember seeing some nice historical archive of Hassan II on there, but nothing too compromising on King Muhammad VI. That's the only political reason I could think of, as well the many critical videos on the Western Sahara. If YouTube is indeed being blocking by Morocco's main ISP, the very corrupt Maroc Telecom, for political reasons there are grounds to take things further. Maroc Telecom's main shareholder is the French mega-corporation Vivendi. Surely newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who made a big deal of supporting freedom and democracy in his victory speech, would be rather embarrassed to learn that a French company is collaborating in censorship? This is worth looking into.

Update: It's unblocked.