On Tuesday, November 26, the Minister of Culture announced to the House of Councillors that «TikTok has agreed to enter into a dialogue with Morocco». The Chinese giant «has even expressed its willingness to open an office in the Kingdom of Morocco», said Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid. «We are going to intervene in this context so that TikTok understands the Moroccan culture», he added. Regarding GAFA (an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon), the Minister of Culture revealed that «there are attempts, with Arab countries, to appoint a common interlocutor whose mission will be to open a dialogue with GAFA on certain issues, essentially regarding the values of all Arab countries and 'Tamaghrabite' (Moroccaness) in Morocco and what is accepted and what is not». Bensaid acknowledged that there are differences between GAFA and Arab countries on «freedom of expression and the values of the Kingdom of Morocco». As a reminder, the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, stated on May 13 in the House of Representatives that «the budgets of Facebook and TikTok exceed Morocco's. We can't ban these platforms because, quite simply, the decision doesn't depend on us. These are not small stores; we're up against major international groups». MPs and councillors have called on the government to ban certain networks in Morocco.
