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Rabat – Algeria is once again pointing an accusatory finger at Moroccan authorities, this time alleging that Morocco has hacked Algerian justice ministry’s official Twitter account to spread propaganda.Algeria’s state-owned radio station said on Friday that Morocco hacked Algeria’s justice ministry’s official Twitter account, and posted a series of tweets on the Ukraine crisis that go against Algeria’s international stance on the issue.
The Algerian regime’s radio station accused Morocco of posting pro-Russia tweets portraying Ukrainain president Volodymyr Zelensky as Nazi and accusing him of murdering Ukrainians.
Without providing any details as to how Algiers arrived at the conclusion that Morocco was behind the unsolicited publication of pro-Russia propaganda on the official platform of an Algerian ministry, the radio simply stressed that the justice ministry will file a lawsuit against the cyberattack.
Morocco is yet to respond to the allegations, with the traditional Moroccan position on such stories being diplomatic restraint aimed at ignoring what many in Rabat consider as pointless accusations meant to galvanize public support behind a normally besieged and increasingly decried Algerian regime.
“Algerian justice ministry’s official Twitter account was hacked on March 11, relevant Algerian authorities successfully recovered the account shortly after. The Algerian justice ministry does not take responsibility for any posts that were published over the hacking incident,” the Algerian ministry tweeted earlier this week.
The tweet did not explicitly accuse Moroccan authorities, however.
The pro-Russian posts accusing Ukraine’s president of Nazism are no longer on the official Twitter account of the Algerian justice ministry. But several Twitter users have posted identical screen shots of the posts, including one that said: “We fully support Russia in the war against Nazism on Ukrainian soil. This is the official stance [of the Algerian government].”
Another pro-Russia tweet posted on Algeria’s justice ministry while allegedly hacked said: “We need to fight Nazism by all means possible. Russia is the country that took the battle to the enemy.”
Read also: Strategic Paranoia: The Banality of Algeria’s Moroccan Obsession
Pointing accusatory fingers at Morocco whenever the Algerian regime finds itself with its back against the wall of public opinion has long been a signature move for Algiers.
In August of last year, the Algerian government cut ties with Morocco by falsely accusing Rabat of being behind the wild fires that caused devastation in Algeria’s Kabylie region last summer.
Five months later, Algeria took its Morocco-bashing to new heights after it accused the Moroccan government of colluding with the World Bank to publish a damning report about political failures amid deepening crises and the rising level of poverty in Algeria.
Most recently, Algeria pointed fingers at Morocco — as always without proof or any persuasive explanation — for allegedly funding a critical mini-series by Arte, a Franco-German channel.
In all of these instances, the Moroccan government’s reaction has been to say nothing in return, with the idea being that responding to Algeria’s “baseless allegations” would be akin to giving the Algerian regime the escalatory spiral it appears to be seeking.
But with the Algerian media and government continuing their finger-pointing ritual despite Morocco’s refusal to engage, it remains to be seen whether Rabat will at some point decide to strike back in what appears to be a narrative warfare aimed at presenting Morocco as an existential enemy of Algerian interests.
