Marrakech – Morocco’s 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign was fought on two fronts. On the pitch, the Atlas Lions advanced through the tournament bracket. Off it, a parallel contest played out across millions of screens – one defined by fake news, AI-generated content, identity-driven polarization, and organized attempts to distort the country’s image on social media.
A qualitative monitoring report released July 16 by the Moroccan Observatory of Media and Digital Vigilance (OMVMN) tracked more than 500 posts, comments, and digital interactions across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok between June 1 and July 13.
The observatory focused on digital and media spaces in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, France, the Netherlands, and Jordan – countries where World Cup-related interactions involving Morocco were most concentrated.
The report’s core finding is that Morocco’s digital presence during the tournament “far exceeded the boundaries of sports competition.”
Digital platforms became an arena where fans, influencers, and media outlets from several countries worked to promote a positive image of their own nations while tearing down the image of their opponents. This turned the digital space into a field of “symbolic competition over identity, reputation, and media influence” alongside the sporting contest itself.
A dual digital image
Morocco’s national team became a focal point for discussions spanning national identity, the country’s international image, inter-community relations, and soft power. As the report put it, this gave Morocco an “exceptional digital and media presence compared to a number of other national teams.”
Football, the report concluded, is now “one of the most prominent sources of pride in national identity.” That was visible in the widespread circulation of national symbols, flags, and the national anthem across platforms, with digital interactions tying the team’s success directly to Morocco’s standing in its international environment.
Yet the digital picture was not one-sided. Morocco’s online image carried “clear duality,” with the country being presented simultaneously as a sporting and organizational model while also facing content marked by “bias, skepticism, or mockery” – particularly from accounts with political or sports-related agendas.
The observatory noted that Morocco’s digital image has become inseparable from the political, media, and cultural contexts specific to each platform and each country.
Fake news, AI content, and identity polarization
Disinformation proved to be one of the tournament’s defining digital challenges. Morocco was “among the countries most targeted” by fake news, according to the report.
The content ranged from fabricated statements and out-of-context images to old videos recirculated as current. And this was not limited to sports – it extended to “more sensitive issues for Morocco, including national identity, African and Arab belonging, relations with certain countries, and the behavior of Moroccan fans and some public figures.”
Artificial intelligence added a new layer of complexity. AI-generated images, videos, and posts were at times “difficult to distinguish from real content,” accelerating the spread of false information and complicating verification efforts.
The report also documented a shift from sports rivalry to “identity-based polarization,” particularly between Moroccan, Egyptian, and Algerian accounts.
Part of the digital interactions extended into “discourses characterized by tension and mutual targeting,” reflecting the influence of pre-existing political and media tensions on reshaping digital debates during major sporting events.
A pattern of emotional reactivity among Moroccan users compounded the problem. The report found that rapid engagement with provocative content – through mass replies, resharing, or heated debates – amplified the very material it aimed to counter, granting it “additional momentum” and rewarding accounts seeking higher viewership and engagement.
The observatory was careful to note that digital content “cannot be considered an expression of the positions of entire peoples.” A limited number of accounts and pages were behind a significant share of controversial content, and digital interactions often reflect the activity of the most vocal users rather than actual public opinion within any given country.
Influencers enter the game
The report also found that the process of shaping Morocco’s digital image has shifted significantly away from traditional media. Influencers, content creators, fans, and individual accounts now play a role that “sometimes exceeds the influence of traditional media outlets.”
Short videos, live streams, comments, and interactive content became the primary sources through which audiences – inside and outside Morocco – formed their impressions of the country during the tournament.
Some accounts deliberately exploited the attention surrounding the Moroccan team to boost viewership, producing content that ranged from pro-Morocco material designed to attract Moroccan audiences to provocative and inflammatory posts targeting fans of rival nations.
Others adopted outright anti-Morocco stances purely to maximize engagement, confirming that a significant portion of digital content now operates under “the logic of the digital economy more than principled positions.”
Solidarity with Morocco during the tournament took multiple forms but was far from uniform. Supportive positions emerged from African and Middle Eastern digital spaces, alongside what the report described as “wide expressions of admiration” for the level the national team delivered.
Yet the strength and continuity of that support varied considerably from one country to another, shaped by political and media contexts, the nature of bilateral relations, and prevailing trends within each digital space.
On the Moroccan side, the report noted that users increasingly evaluated other peoples based on their stance toward the national team. Those perceived as supportive received wide praise, while those seen as hostile drew sharp criticism, reflecting what the observatory called a growing “emotional dimension in digital relations between peoples during major sporting events.”
Digital diplomacy to safeguard Morocco’s image
In light of its findings, the observatory issued 12 recommendations. At the top of the list is establishing a permanent national system for media and digital vigilance capable of continuous monitoring and early detection of disinformation campaigns before they gain traction.
The report also called for building a dedicated early warning mechanism to identify organized digital campaigns and fake news “in their initial stages,” allowing for rapid response and limiting their spread.
On the international front, the observatory urged Moroccan institutions, experts, journalists, and content creators to strengthen their presence on multilingual international platforms. It described this step as “a strategic imperative” to ensure Morocco’s narrative is represented in cross-border debates and to counter misleading content.
It also recommended developing a national digital diplomacy strategy that coordinates across institutions to protect and promote Morocco’s image on the global stage.
The report further pushed for investing in AI-powered national verification tools, launching public awareness programs to build citizens’ fact-checking skills, and encouraging professional multilingual digital content production.
It called on universities and research centers to conduct periodic studies on digital public opinion, fake news, and influence campaigns – and recommended issuing regular reports tracking the evolution of Morocco’s digital image over time.
The report was produced using AI-assisted data collection and classification, followed by qualitative analysis conducted by the observatory’s team.
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