So this is pretty troubling news, Maroc Telecom is Morocco’s largest Internet Service Provider and they seem to have banned online games completely.
NeoGaf user Madouu has explained that the country has 3 ISPs, but Maroc Telecom controls the biggest share of the internet market in Morocco, which is far from ideal, obviously.
Last January, all three ISPs in Morocco banned a bunch of audio and video chat apps, including Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook messenger and Google Hangouts.
As you’d imagine, people were pissed and kicked up a shit storm, forcing the ISPs to respond. They delivered a statement claiming that it was an ANRT’s ruling, an independent regulatory agency.
The ANRT justified its decision by stating that none of the services providing voice over IP (VoIP) or other “free internet calls” had the required licenses.
So more recently, a new set of VoIP applications that had escaped the ban until now have been blocked by Maroc Telecom. This also seems to have been accompanied by what is described as a “stealth ban” on all online videogames.
Madouu wrote that it’s “almost impossible” to play an online game at the moment, while Maroc Telecom have remained silent on the matter.
So what the hell is going on? It’s possible that this is a simple mistake, but I suspect not entirely likely. Considering the previous bans, and the fact that this has been going on for a few days now coupled with the radio silence from Maroc, it doesn’t look good at all.
Obviously if this is intentional, it’s absolute bullshit. Madouu hopes that by sharing the story as much as possible, something will come of it.
In the meantime, you can sign a petition here which currently sits at 11,000 signatures. Hopefully Morocco gets it sorted.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.