Rabat – Google has officially responded to reports claiming that the tech giant altered Morocco’s map by removing borders between the country’s southern provinces and the rest of the country.
AFP quoted a spokesperson from Google who denied the news, saying: “We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps.”
The spokesperson said people using Google Maps outside of Morocco “see Western Sahara and a dotted line to represent its disputed border; people using Maps in Morocco do not see Western Sahara.”
Many social users and news outlets alleged that Google altered Morocco’s map following the UN Security Council’s historic adoption of Resolution 2797, which recognizes the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the genuine political solution and the only basis for negotiations over Western Sahara.
The UNSC adopted the resolution on October 31, sparking widespread celebrations among Moroccans at home and abroad.
The resolution marked a new milestone in the growing international momentum behind Morocco’s position on the Sahara dossier.
Following the vote, Moroccans on socials and local outlets started circulating false news that Google Maps updated Morocco’s map to reflect the new reality in line with the resolution.
However, a simple check using a VPN reveals that for users outside Morocco, Google continues to display a map that does not align with the international community’s growing consensus.
The tech giant defended its position, which challenges Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its southern provinces, by alleging that the labels “follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions.”
Morocco’s Sahara position continues to garner international support, as over 120 countries view the autonomy initiative as the most, or the only, viable political solution to end the 50-year-long dispute.
A clear path forward
The UN Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, is now working to engage all parties to the dispute around the roundtable of talks to discuss a solution based on Morocco’s autonomy initiative.
Morocco is also preparing to discuss any developments as well as an updated Autonomy Plan at the UN’s request. King Mohammed VI recently invited Moroccan political parties to submit their proposals and visions to contribute to updating the autonomy plan.
De Misturra’s consistent challenge, however, remains: to convince Algeria’s regime to engage in the UN-led political process, as Algiers continues to refuse its role and responsibility in the conflict.
Despite harboring, funding, arming, and supporting the Polisario Front – a separatist group challenging Morocco’s territorial integrity – the Algerian regime declares itself as merely an observer and not a main party to the dispute.
The UN envoy recently shut down these claims in a briefing he released earlier this month, in which he specifically defined the parties to the dispute.
Commenting on Resolution 2797, de Mistura said: “It’s a very detailed resolution – every word was carefully chosen and negotiated. There are several key points: The parties are clearly identified as Morocco, the Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania.”
The newly approved resolution comes as a positive turning point on the Sahara dispute, putting a definitive end to Algeria and Polisario’s outdated narratives and long-promoted claims of self-determination.
While the resolution includes the notion of self-determination, de Mistura stated that the resolution also explicitly references and upholds Morocco’s sovereignty over the region.
“The principle of self-determination is there, as is a clear reference to Moroccan sovereignty,” de Mistura said in the briefing.
