Rabat — The Moroccan government and TikTok have committed to strengthening their cooperation in the fight against misinformation and protecting citizens’ privacy.
On Thursday, Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, met with, TikTok’s Director of Public Policy for the MENA region, Wael Ezzat, in Rabat. The meeting focused on enhancing collaboration to tackle issues such as misinformation, fake news, defamation, and privacy violations.
Both sides spoke to the importance of addressing negative and unconstructive content on TikTok that violates Moroccan legal provisions, while also stressing the need to uphold freedom of expression and opinion, as guaranteed by the Constitution and international treaties. The two parties agreed to continue coordinating efforts to meet these objectives.
This meeting is part of the broader efforts by the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Communication and the Moroccan government to encourage serious, relevant content on social media while countering various negative trends. They reaffirmed their commitment to safeguarding citizens’ public expressions and ensuring that freedom of speech is respected.
A recent report by media monitoring organization Misbar, released on July 3, revealed that Morocco was among the top three countries most targeted by disinformation campaigns in June. The report analyzed 176 fact-checking articles and 30 investigative pieces, identifying Morocco, alongside Yemen and Palestine, as being heavily targeted.
This follows a separate report from March 2024 by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which uncovered a large-scale propaganda campaign against Morocco, orchestrated by Algerian content creators on social media platforms such as YouTube.
