Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – Morocco’s parliament is considering banning TikTok when it reconvenes in October over concerns regarding the available content on the popular social media.
As reported by local media, the Education Committee of Morocco’s top legislative body will review a bill proposed in an earlier session, which aims to ban TikTok. The original bill was proposed several months ago, when a member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), Hanan Atrakin, raised the issue of potential “misuse” of the popular social media app.
The case for banning
Atrakin told parliament he considered the app to have risks for young people, and on the country’s cultural and social values.
Atrakin’s opinions are shared with some parts of Moroccan society, as the unparalleled freedom to create content on the app has led to an explosion of content created in Morocco. Much of this content has little purpose beyond going viral, and often contains material promoting conspiracy theories, hateful content, and misinformation.
Platforms like TikTok have supported the rise of influencers like the notorious Adrew Tate, who is being investigated for human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group, and promotes explicit woman-hating content.
There are also some unique Moroccan factors on TikTok. Poor Moroccan families have taken to the platform to beg for money through live streams. The app has become particularly popular among older people who are illiterate and use the simple swipe system to get their news.
If Morocco were to ban TikTok, it would join a list of repressive and undemocratic countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Somalia. The US will also soon join the list over fears of Chinese interference in the country’s elections.
The case against
Yet the fact that banning TikTok is common among repressive states should give reason for concern. The unparalleled freedom to publish material might produce unwanted content, but restricting the platform altogether could imperil the freedom of thought and expression in the countries where these bans are implemented.
It is particularly noticeable that TIkTok has garnered far more attention than US social media platforms that are similarly rife with conspiracy theories and misinformation. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Telegram all share similar controversial data harvesting methods and allow users to share misinformation on a variety of harmful topics.
While TokTok has many content moderation standards like its competitors, there is one topic where the platform allows unrivaled freedom: the topic of Palestine.
A variety of NGOs have spoken out about the “systematic censorship” applied by Meta, which owns both instagram and Facebook. Twitter/X has Similarly been accused of going as far as banning prominent Palestinian public figures.
For many people, TikTok is the only place where the ongoing genocide in Palestine an be freely discussed and where content on the ground can reach millions across the world.
A difficult decision
The case of Palestine shows that while the freedom to publish content without much regulation can have bad effects, it can also give voice to the voiceless, to those being censored and oppressed.
In a recent statement, Minister of Justice Abdellatif Ouahbi emphasized how difficult it would be to ban Tiktok in reality. The wide availability of cheap and free Virtual-Private Networks (VPNs) mean that people in even the worst authoritarian regimes can access the internet freely.
With young Moroccans especially tech-savvy, they would quickly be able to circumvent any ban, while older illiterate people would be the ones who would see their access cut off.
The Moroccan government has a clear choice to make and has to consider whether implementing the ban would protect “cultural and social values” enough, even while all other social media platforms are still freely available.
Secondly, they would have to consider the reputational damage the country would suffer from joining a list of repressive states who ban the app.
Thirdly, parliamentarians would need to consider the optics of banning the one app where Moroccans can see the unvarnished truth of the Palestinian experience during the Israeli onslaught.
The Moroccan Parliament has a choice to make, and it is not an easy one.
