After Pegasus Affair, Meta Suspends 43 Key Accounts Belonging to the Makhzen

A new investigation uncovers another scandal of the Makhzen regime, which uses all “dirty means” to prevent opponents from telling the truth, by recruiting dozens of fake accounts to tarnish the image of imprisoned journalists and share what is published by media platforms close to the Makhzen state, to attack critics of its corrupt and authoritarian policy.

After the spying scandal through the “Pegasus” program, in which the Makhzen was involved, an investigation revealed that the management of the American “Meta” company had, on May 22, suspended 43 new accounts on Facebook, which were employed to carry out coordinated and carefully prepared campaigns to abuse and distort the imprisoned journalists in Morocco, headed by Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni, human rights defenders and several opponents of the Moroccan regime’s policies.

The investigation, which was carried out by the “Global Reporting Center” the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University and the Digital Forensic Research Laboratory DFRLab), in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York and PEN Canada, and was reported by independent Moroccan news websites, that the “Meta” company removed these accounts after verifying that they were linked to a previous network consisting of 385 accounts, 6 pages on Facebook and 40 accounts on Instagram, which had been suspended in February 2021.

The investigation, which focused on the cases of detained Moroccan journalists Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni, who were convicted of 6 and 5 years in prison, respectively, confirmed that “these accounts operate in a coordinated manner on Facebook, to publish content that is in line with the official narrative of the Moroccan state.”

It explained that, in addition to “narratives targeting imprisoned Moroccan journalists Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni, these accounts launched violent attacks on another group of human rights defenders and Moroccan citizens who criticise the regime, such as former human rights minister and lawyer Muhammed Zayan, historian and human rights activist Maati Monjib and dissident and blogger Zakaria Moumni “(…).

The report also warned that these accounts “published the same content at identical or close intervals of time, and wrote insulting comments on posts on Facebook, which were published by pro-regime media platforms,” and that “some of these accounts Like the same post, which requires a degree of commitment and coordination”.

The investigation concluded that “these 43 accounts engaged in media disinformation and moral assassination of Moroccan journalists by amplifying the sharing of offensive posts and articles against Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni, and publishing inciting comments on posts broadcast by media platforms on Facebook.”

“This cell has been active for at least 6 years, and during this period the Moroccan authorities arrested many individuals who were the target of these accounts, as these fake accounts were active on specific dates, especially when threats to arrest Omar Radi and Suleiman Raissouni were published, or during their trial”, it added.

This leads, the researchers conclude, to “manipulate social media by tools employed as part of a much broader campaign of pro-state harassment and intimidation against Moroccan journalists and opposition”.