This isn't the first time a Moroccan internet user faces such charges. In 2008 Fouad Mourtada, a young engineer, was sentenced to three years in prison for impersonating the king’s brother on Facebook. An international outcry and a campaign of support forced the authorities to release Mr Mourtada a month after his arrest.

Walid Bahomane's arrest is the first since a constitutional reform last summer (theoretically) revoked the “sacred” character of the monarch. The king is still, however, the focus of a great deal of devotion in the country.

A copy of the police report filed against Mr Bahomane emerged on the internet, revealing a first: according to the document, items seized by the police are “two Facebook pages (sic) containing phrases and images insulting the sacred values, and an IBM computer.​​”

Copy of the police report filed against Mr. Walid Bahomane as posted on Facebook.

Despite calls for his release the judge decided to send Walid to a juvenile detention facility near the capital pending his trial. A group of netizens have reacted to the arrest of Mr Bahomane by creating a support group on Facebook called “Mohammed VI, my freedom is more sacred than you!“, where members are invited to publish and share cartoons of the king.

Cartoon representing king Mohammed VI posted on Facebook

The group's preamble reads [ar]:

هذه مجموعة تضامنية مع الشاب وليد بحمان، 18 سنة، معتقل بسجن الأحداث بسلا بتهمة إهانة قداسة محمد السادس على الفيسبوك. فلنثبت لمحمد السادس أن حريتنا أقدس منه

Zineb El Ghazoui, a co-creator of the group, writes on her blog [fr]:

[cette arrestation bat] en brèche la propagande de l'Etat marocain autour du changement et des prétendues avancées démocratiques.

On Twitter, some are timidly following suit. Musique Arabe tweets [fr]:

@MusiqueArabe Opération soutien à Walid Bahomane - publions tous sur nos profils la caricature de notre choix.

Despite the recent constitutional reforms in Morocco the regime does not seem prepared to tolerate any violation of its red lines. In July 2011, a few days after the adoption of the new constitution, a French newspaper, Le Courrier International, was censored [fr] in Morocco because it contained an irreverent caricature of the king.

The independent press has often suffered the wrath of the regime when it dared tackle the sensitive subject of the monarchy. So much so that the Internet seems today the last frontier where most Moroccans can still exercise their right to free expression.

Something Moroccan netizens seem to be fully aware of. Inspired by the Arab spring, they seem determined to close ranks and show solidarity with Mr Bahomane.

As a result, exercising censorship will be even more difficult for the regime.

Written by Hisham Almiraat · comments (4)
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With all of the social media successes throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, it would be all too easy to overlook the struggles faced by bloggers and netizens throughout the region. And yet, 2011 was an extraordinary difficult year for free expression, from Egypt's shutdown of the Internet to the numerous harassed, arrested, and detained bloggers from the Maghreb to the Gulf.

Iran: No room for free expression

Less than a week into 2012, Reporters Without Borders puts the number of jailed netizens globally at 126. Within the list, Iran stands out, as my colleague Fred Petrossian writes:

In 2011, the Iranian regime was faithful to its reputation as an enemy of internet as it continued to repress bloggers and even threaten their lives. Blogger Sakhi Rigi got a record breaking 20-year jail sentence. Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, who is serving 15 years in prison, struggled for his health and for a period was deprived of contact with his family and lawyer. RSF talked about the plight of seven netizens in Iran in July 2011. These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. While a few bloggers likeShiva Nazar Ahari andHossein Derakhshanwere released on bail, others like Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari may face charges of ‘Waging War Against God' (moharebeh), for which a death sentence can be pronounced. As Omid Reza Mirsayafi's tragic death shows, the more a blogger is isolated and deprived of a network, the more he is in danger.

Egypt, Syria, Bahrain among the region's worst

But while Iran may rank worst in terms of the number of bloggers detained, life for bloggers in much of the rest of the region has been no picnic. In Syria, where the uprising that started last spring shows few signs of abating, several prominent bloggers were arrested in 2011, threatening countless more into silence. Razan Ghazzawi, a former Global Voices contributor, spent fifteen days in prison in December until being released on bail, but still faces trial for “weakening the national sentiment,” among other charges. Hussein Ghrer, released in early December, also faces trial. Meanwhile, Tal Al-Mallohi, the teenaged blogger imprisoned in 2009, is serving a five year sentence.

Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah poses with his wife and fellow blogger Manal Hassan in Tunis just one month before his arrest

A third country in the region ranks among the worst in 2011, though one wouldn't know it from following mainstream media coverage. Bahrain, where a nascent uprising was all but quashed early in the year, levied harsh punishments on several bloggers in 2011, including Global Voices Advocacy contributor Ali Abdulemam, who was sentenced in absentia to fifteen years in prison and is currently in hiding.

Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam at the 2009 Arabloggers Workshop in Beirut

Elsewhere in the region, the struggle continues

Though perhaps less systematically, other countries in the region targeted bloggers as well in 2011. Prior to the fall of Ben Ali, Tunisian bloggers Slim Amamou (a Global Voices Advocacy contributor) and Azyz Amami were briefly imprisoned. Amami was then arrested again and beaten by police in September. Though the arrest was not for his blogging but for a joke told near a police station, it demonstrated the tenuous state of free expression in the country.

In Morocco, a blogger and several activists were arrested in September, while Saudi Arabia went after video bloggers who had been documenting poverty in the oil-rich country. And in the UAE, a female blogger was summoned for interrogation over a tweet.

Fighting for a better 2012

Though this represents only a fraction of those intimidated, harassed, and imprisoned in 2011, it is illustrative of the continued struggle faced by bloggers, activists, and other netizens in the region. And as 2012 kicks off with such a large number of bloggers in prison, it is apparent that there is more work to be done to ensure that the right to free expression is guaranteed for everyone. And fortunately, a growing number of grassroots organizations in the region are taking up the fight for digital rights. But nevertheless, bloggers must be ever vigilant, and consider the risks they face as they take their activism online. Global Voices salutes these brave bloggers and will continue to make sure their voices are heard throughout the world.

Photo credits: Jillian C. York.

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What is Mamfakinch! and why has it been attacked?

Mamfakinch!

In the wake of the Arab revolutions, a couple of Moroccan online activists launched a militant website on February 17, 2011. They called it Mamfakinch!, which in Moroccan Arabic means “We won't give up!”.

In the six months of its existence Mamfakinch! has attracted a record audience of over a million unique visitors across its two main outlets which comprise an online news portal and a blog. The site's goal, according to its members, is to provide a platform for free expression for opposition voices and pro-democracy activists.

Against the backdrop of the Arab revolutions, Mamfakinch! set about to aggregate, curate and disseminate citizen media material, emulating the work of similar outlets in the region, notably the celebrated Tunisian news portal Nawaat.org.

But as Mamfakinch! readers and supporters have grown in number, so too have its detractors. “The website has gained a lot of popularity in the Moroccan activist blogosphere but we had also attracted a lot of enemies. Attacks against the website have started very early on but they are becoming increasingly aggressive” says this site's co-manager who also explains that the platform is receiving regular threats and countless derogatory comments. [Please note: the Mamfakinch! representatives interviewed in this article wish to remain anonymous].

One video recently surfaced on the internet purporting to show an attack against Mamfakinch!. The site was quick to publish an article [Fr] in which it (very sarcastically) dismissed the alleged attack as “a miserable spoof”.

The Attack

This Sunday, while the website was securing the exclusive live coverage of the pro-democracy marches and demonstrations being held across the kingdom, access to its main portal was denied. The blockade lasted for several hours before the site again became accessible late in the evening.

According to the site administrators, Mamfakinch! came under a large-scale DDoS attack. “The attack seems to originate from thousands of dynamic IPs localted in Saudi Arabia (!)” says the website's webmaster. The site's server has, in the matter of a few hours, became overloaded with the amount of new automated IPs' requests.

“The site is now up and running and we have taken measures to insure that such attacks don't happen in the future… although no one can be absolutely sure” says this co-founder of the site who adds that his colleagues, “for obvious security reasons, prefer not to disclose details of the steps taken to secure access to the site.”

Like in Ben Ali's Tunisia

Before the revolution in Tunisia, Morocco was praised for the relative freedom enjoyed by its internet users. But the country is now seeing a surge in attacks against online dissidents, several of whom have had their Facebook or email accounts hacked into. Phishing techniques were probably used to harvest account passwords.

DDoS attacks, infiltration techniques and blockage of dissident domain names were common during the Ben Ali era in Tunisia. Those types of attacks are increasingly becoming commonplace in Morocco. The site of the irreverent magazine Demain Online has not yet recovered from an attack it suffered over a month ago. The website 20Fevrier.com, believed to be related to the pro-democracy movement in Morocco, also came under attack several weeks ago. It has been offline ever since.

“The more they attacks us, the more we learn!”

Paradoxically, in the Arab world, the most experienced activists usually come from the most repressive environments. After a long confrontation with their governments, Tunisian and Egyptian activists have become experts in circumvention tools. This expertise is now being transferred to other countries in the region where militants are learning each day as they struggle against attempts to censor their voices online.

This statement from a member of Mamfakinch! sums up the situation quite well: “The more they attack us, the more we learn! Let them come!”

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Accessnow created and circulated a much needed step-by-step guide to protect privacy online. This morning a Syrian student in Jordan approached me on twitter and said that he couldn't follow the guide to enable HTTPS for his Hotmail account. I asked him send me a screen shot and proceeded to alert Jillian York of the Berkman Center to the issue.

York, who's also an Advocacy contributor, proceeded to investigate the issue further. Her first suspicion was export controls due to sanctions imposed on Syria, but the user stated he was in Jordan and that his profile info was set to Jordan as well. That ruled out the possiblity of the problem being caused by over-complying with the export controls, so she took a closer look at the issue:

I quickly created a Hotmail account to see if I could replicate the situation; sure enough, when I set my location to the United States, I could turn on HTTPS as a setting, but when I switched to Jordan, I could not. I tested several other Arab countries–Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria–also no HTTPS. I then tested Guatemala, Israel, and Turkey: all fine. France, German: fine. Iran…no HTTPS.

The screenshot below shows the error message users from Arab countries and Iran get when attempting to activate secure connections (HTTPS) for their free webmail account provided by Microsoft.

Luckily, a temporary workaround exists for concerned users. All they need to do is change the country in their profile to the US and they would be able to set HTTPS to be used automatically. York also suggests that affected users can also switch to gmail which has the setting enabled by default globally, and she states that Microsoft has been contacted and informed about the problem. Hopefully Microsoft will handle this security risk in a timely manner.

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I have received two messages on my Facebook inbox, in the first message, the sender threatened of slaughtering me like sheep being slain! in the second message titled ” an appointment” , the sender says to me : “we shall meet at Elhajeb where murdering you is going to take a place!” Elhajeb, however, 15 km away from my village, is the nearest place which i often go to every now and then! This points out that the terrorist exerted extra efforts to find out my location!

In a short video appeal posted on his blog Kacem says he's not against Muslims and that he supports freedom of religion, asking for his own right to freedom of conscience to be respected.

Kacem also says his repeated reports about abusive messages and threatening users have brought no response so far from Facebook who, the blogger says, should take these claims more seriously.

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Nevertheless, campaigners and supporters from all over the world mounted pressure on the Moroccan authorities. Bashir was released on February 8, 2010, two months after his arrest.

In the following interview Bashir tells his story.

Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

First, I want to thank the people working for Global Voices for giving me this opportunity to connect with their readers, and for their support and solidarity with me and my cause. I wish them more success and progress.
My name is Bashir Hazzam. I was born in 1982 in Tarhjicht where I received primary education, then moved to Bouizakarne for secondary education. I got my baccalaureate in 2002 in Tarhjicht, then joined the Faculty of Sharia (Islamic Law) at Ait Melloul in Agadir, from which I graduated in Sharia Law in 2008. I engaged very early on in associative work within local associations and was involved in student activities with the National Union of the Students of Morocco (UNEM). I'm a member of the Justice and Charity group (a de jure banned Islamist group, also known as Al-Adl wal-Ihssan or Al-Adl), and also a blogger since 2007.

How did you discover the blogosphere and what do you write about in general?

I discovered the world of blogging when I was a student: I came across a number of blogs and realized that blogging enables people to publish their ideas easily, without control and for free. I liked the idea so much that, after a brief research, I ended up creating my own blog on the Arabic blog publishing website Maktoob. That was back in September 1th, 2007. I chose to call it Al-Bushra (The Good News). My first post was titled: “Electoral Promises: Facts or Fiction.” By the way, I was interrogated by the police about the content of this article when I was arrested last December. As for my writings, I generally blog about national, international political, intellectual and religious issues.

To what extent has blogging and the Internet in general helped you in your life and activities?

The blogosphere enabled me to exchange views and ideas and communicate with many bloggers and writers from around the world. This had a positive impact on my life. Though I'm new to this field, I believe that with the passage of time, I will be able to discover new and important things that will help me improve my blogging and everyday life skills. The Internet is growing so fast, which makes the use of it highly beneficial for those who master it.

After your arrest with Abdullah Boukfou and others, the authorities claimed they had done so because you published “false information harmful to the reputation of Morocco.” Do you agree with this version of events? How do you explain the reasons behind your detention?

I completely disagree with the official version because the statement [I published on my blog] does not include any term that could cause harm to the reputation or interests of the country. And anyone who takes a look at the content of this statement can confirm that it is perfectly harmless, and that it does not include any insult to the country's reputation. To the extent that the Court decided the statement was inoffensive and acquitted me on this specific charge, but still it prosecuted me on the charge of participating in an armed protest, even though I did not participate in the demonstration in the first place. This is something that surprised me really.
I think the reason behind my arrest was to impose a media blackout around the events that occurred in Tarhjicht, after the violent intervention of the security forces against unarmed students and the population that sided with them. They are trying to prevent the truth from filtering to the public.
In fact, the charge of insulting the country's reputation on human rights should be directed at the local authority which perpetrated violence of various kinds against protesters and detainees, who simply demanded their rights in a peaceful and civilized way. We should never have been blamed. We have published the facts that occurred on the ground only to become victims of the tyranny met upon the population at random.

How were you treated during detention? And do you think you received a fair trial?

Except for some sporadic provocations at the beginning of the investigation, officers treated me well. The trial was not fair: I was sentenced to four months in prison, Abdullah Boukfou, the owner of the internet café, to one year, while three students and blogger Boubaker Al-Yadib (who was since released) received a six-month sentence. The trial was moving towards clearing us of all charges when, against the odds, the verdict was pronounced against us. We, and our defense team, felt that the process was controlled by the authorities. So much so that the verdicts were so unequal, particularly as the charges against me were the same as those filed against Abdullah Boukfou, but he ended up receiving a harsher sentence.

There were several interpretations of your release from jail: some said it was an implicit recognition by the authorities of their “mistake,” others suggested it was a public relations exercise to save the reputation of the country abroad. What's your take on this?

All these things might be true. Those indeed might have been the motives behind the authorities' decision to retreat from their initial stance, that has only distorted the image and reputation of the country abroad.

Has the campaign of solidarity in your opinion, influenced the course of events? Do these campaigns really matter?

Yes, campaigns of solidarity conducted by bloggers in Morocco and abroad, led by the Moroccan Association of Bloggers, and broadly supported by national and international human rights organizations, particularly Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, as well as the media, have contributed significantly to influence and pressure the officials to release us. Thanks to the efforts of all those -and praise first be to Allah- I regained my freedom after two months spent in prison. Without their campaigning, I would have remained behind bars. Also, my affiliation to Al-Adl, has brought a significant pressure to bear, as it is the largest political force of opposition in Morocco. All those factors have eventually contributed to my release.

How would you characterize freedom of expression in Morocco, especially on the Internet?

Freedom of expression in our country is plummeting and is in constant deterioration. Figures from international organizations shore up this claim, placing Morocco among countries with the least regard for freedom of expression. Reality as well supports this perception with a succession of arrests and trials of many bloggers, journalists, human rights activists and opposition figures, harassed solely because of their views. As for freedom over the Internet, the state increasingly wants to impose its control on it. This has been made evident after the attacks suffered by bloggers and the latest arrest, a couple of weeks ago, of a web designer, Abdellatif Ouiass, creator of the website “The World's Best Head of State,” although he has since been released on bail.
This shows clearly how the hands and the eyes of the Moroccan intelligence services want now to extend to the Internet. This, however, will have no significant impact given the extent of the information revolution, which each day overpowers repressive regimes.

After all that's happened, have you changed the way you blog or write? Do you have self-censorship?

What happened will not affect me. Despite the arbitrary detention, I kept my writing style intact. It will not affect my thoughts or my views. Everyone in this world has the right to express her/his opinions without censorship as long as that does not contradict laws, that are well known in this regard.

What advice would you have for bloggers in Morocco, and in the world who fear the wrath of their governments or regimes?

I would invite people to take advantage of technologies offered by the Internet to highlight their skills and talents, and express their ambitions and aspirations through blogging, so as to break the systematic marginalization imposed by authoritarian states, especially on the youth. That's a way for those countries to reach real progress and keep pace with developed nations, provided that expression remains disciplined, responsible and respectful of the privacy and specificity of others. There shouldn't be any fear of arrest or the repression that hinders the will of the people, as long as what is published by the blogger does not violate the law.

Do you have a final word for those who stood in solidarity with you?

In the end, and through this free outlet, I wish to extend my thanks and gratitude to each one of those who supported me during this ordeal, especially the Moroccan Association of Bloggers, all bloggers and activists in and outside the country, who have shown great solidarity with me. I also thank my defense lawyers, media outlets that highlighted my case, my brothers in the Justice and charity group, and all national and international human rights organizations, especially Freedom House , Reporters Without Borders and all those throughout the world whose conscience has led them to support my case. I urge upon them to continue their solidarity until Abdullah Boukfou, Abdellatif Ouiass (who's now released on bail) and all prisoners of conscience in the prisons of the country are released.

Written by Hisham Almiraat · comments (3)
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Over the course of the past week, I've gotten reports from a number of people whose personal Facebook pages have been removed or deleted from the Facebook platform. At first, it was a male friend in Morocco. Then a female, Moroccan friend in Boston. Then an Indian woman in the UK. And then even more.

Once I investigated a bit further and spoke to each of them, I discovered what each of them have in common: All of them are critical of Islam (some are atheists, others ex-Muslims, still others reformers) and post frequently articles and status updates about the religion.

And then someone told me that a group was created on Facebook (in Arabic) for the sole purpose of reporting, and thus having removed, Facebook profiles of atheist Arabs. The group, which appears to have also been removed, was entitled “Facebook pesticide” and its sole purpose was to “identity Atheists / Agnostic / anti-religion in the Arab world and specifically in Tunisia …” Once identified, the group members would then attempt to report such users.

Of course it's problematic that there's a group of people seeking to destroy the online identities of users of a certain group, but that's not the issue I'm going to address in this blog post. Instead, I will address why Facebook's strategy toward dealing with situations like this is so problematic:

1. The Facebook platform makes it all too easy for users to get other users' accounts removed. Any user can report another user by the simple click of a button. Facebook has not spoken publicly about how this process works, but my suspicion is that when a number of users report the same user, their profile is automatically disabled. What happens next I can only speculate about, but from accounts I've received, Facebook does not contact users, rather, users may write to “disabled@facebook.com” to request their account be reinstated. Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn't.


A screenshot of Facebook's "report" function

2. Facebook's Terms of Service (TOS) require users to use a real name for their profile. This gives would-be attackers a simple way to report a person's profile. In the case of Arab activists in particular, many tend to use pseudonyms because of the risks they encounter in their home countries. Therefore, it is simple to effectively report and have someone's profile removed if that's the case.
3. Facebook does not inform users that their profile has been removed, nor does it tell them why. Unlike YouTube, Flickr, and other social media platforms, Facebook does not inform users that their profile has been removed (or why); it simply deletes them. The only method of recourse (sending an email to “disabled@facebook.com”) does not guarantee a response, and in many cases, users report never receiving one. Sabina England, whose profile was recently deactivated, says she was never given a reason, nor has she received a response to her many emails to Facebook.
4. Facebook requires people to show government identification to prove they are who they say they are. Recently, my friend, activist Najat Kessler, had her Facebook profile deactivated. She wrote to “disabled@facebook.com” and received a prompt reply, the text of which read:
   

   On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 5:23 PM, The Facebook Team <appeals+0pmdmcp@support.facebook.com> wrote:
   Hi,

   At this time, we cannot verify the ownership of the account under this address. Please reply to this email with a scanned image of a government-issued photo ID (e.g., driver's license) in order to confirm your ownership of the account. Please black out any personal information that is not needed to verify your identity (e.g., social security number). Rest assured that we will permanently delete your ID from our servers once we have used it to verify the authenticity of your account.

   Please keep in mind that fake accounts are a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Facebook requires users to provide their real first and last names. Impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited.

   In addition to your photo ID, please include all of our previous correspondence in your response so that we can refer to your original email. Once we have received this information, we will reevaluate the status of the account. Please note that we will not be able to process your request unless you send in proper identification. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

   Thanks,

   Dominique
   User Operations
   Facebook

   So basically, we're supposed to trust Facebook to handle our identities with care? Facebook, of the notoriously sketchy Privacy Policy? No thanks!

The rest of this I've written about here. Effectively, the problem is this: For activists, Facebook's terms of service are simply not clear enough, and its methods for profile removal and reinstatement not transparent.

My recommendations to Facebook?

• First and foremost, offer transparency to your users. Yes, Facebook is a private, free platform, but users expect to be able to use it. It is your right to create whatever Terms of Service you want, but be clear, consistent, and transparent when enforcing them.
• Be consistent…There are multiple profiles for Jesus Christ on Facebook that have been allowed to remain, yet “Sabina England” (a very public pseudonym representing a real person) is not allowed to stay? Furthermore, why is it so important that users use their real names, anyway? Don't you realize the risks people must take in certain countries?
• Change your TOS. Telling us that we must not use Facebook in manner that “infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law” is too vague–are you referring to United States law? If yes, then say so. If not, then which law? Saudi Arabian law, for example, would require that women cover their hair. German law would ban Holocaust denial (which Facebook famously allows to remain on the site). Be clear with your users.

Any other recommendations you'd make to Facebook?

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Naoufel Chaara is a talented Moroccan blogger. His website [Ar] has been recently nominated for the Deutsche Welle's 2010 BOBs international award in the Best Arabic Blog category. Naoufel's usually caustic views on people and power in his country and the Arab world, often pack a strong punch with his pretty sizable readership.

One would expect that a dissenting voice is mainly threatened by local power's systems of censorship, but Naoufel's surprise was so big when he learned that his blog was actually banned outside of his country's frontiers.

In the following short interview, the blogger explains how he came to know about the ban and if this impacts on his writings.

Can you introduce your blog and the kind of topics you cover?

How did you learn that your website was blocked in some Arab countries?

How do you explain the censorship?

What was the reaction of your blog's readers?

Will this ban influence the way you write on your blog?

Are there ways to circumvent this censorship?

Any final thoughs?

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Over the past few years, Facebook has come under scrutiny a number of times for its seeming hypocrisy on what types of groups it deems inappropriate. Although the site's terms of service (TOS) ban everything from nudity, to speech deemed hateful, to using a pseudonym to open an account, they are selectively enforced. In mid-2009 Facebook officials stated that they would not delete Holocaust denial groups outright despite pressure from Jewish groups, but only a few months earlier deleted accounts of users who posted photographs of themselves breastfeeding their babies.  There are numerous other examples.

The TOS appear only to be enforced when enough users report a group as inappropriate, and once a group is removed, its creators often find it impossible to get it back. Users whose personal accounts are removed sometimes create a new account, only to find it deleted again soon afterward.

Moroccan activist Kacem El Ghazzali was recently subjected to Facebook's TOS when a group he had created, entitled “Jeunes pour la séparation entre Religion et Enseignement” (youth for the separation between religion and education), was promptly removed.  El Ghazzali emailed Facebook, but received no response.  Two days later, his personal account had been deleted from Facebook as well (the movement also has a blog, hosted on Blogger).  He says that while the group was live, he received emails from Muslims who opposed the group, as well as other groups he had created.

The homepage of the "Jeunes pour la séparation entre Religion et Enseignement" Facebook group

El Ghazzali won't speculate as to why Facebook removed his group, but it should come as no surprise. Two years ago, when a young Moroccan engineer named Fouad Mourtada was arrested for creating a fake profile of Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid, many speculated that Facebook had turned his information over to the government (Facebook neither confirmed nor denied the accusation).

El Ghazzali's group, and his account, both appear to have been well within both U.S. law and Facebook's TOS.  Why then, did Facebook delete them?  Was it under pressure from another country's government, or did enough people simply report the group that Facebook automatically removed it?  In any case, why doesn't Facebook offer recourse for its users to report accounts and groups removed in error, as other sites such as YouTube and Blogger do?

Since his account and groups do not appear to be in violation of Facebook's TOS, it seems that Facebook is now policing speech, possibly at the behest of a foreign government.

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Reporters Without Borders condemned the sentences, stating that, “Bashir Hazzam and Abdullah Boukhou have not committed any illegal act. Bashir Hazzam has only posted a statement released on the crackdown by the police during student demonstrations in Tarjijt, 200km south of Agadi. Abdullah Boukhou is accused of having sent information and photos on these events. Instead of throwing these innocent people in prison, the authorities would do better to investigate abuses committed by local security services.”

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