Matthew Helmke (dot) Net » Blog Archive » Stuff that doesn’t work in Morocco

Stuff that doesn’t work in Morocco

January15

I currently live in North Africa, Morocco to be specific. For the most part, I am very pleased with my internet service provider (Maroc Telecom). Up/download speeds are consistently good, and I almost never have downtime. There have been very occasional service issues, but those could be just as easily attributed to my language skills as to the company.

I do have a major complaint, though. The big thing is that there are some services and content being blocked here. Here is my list, at least the things I know of and can recall right now.

Google Earth, OpenDNS, LiveJournal, anonymizer.com, multiproxy.org, and on occasion You Tube.

I realize this could be thwarted using a proxy like JAP or by using TOR, but I don’t need any of these enough to do that, and it isn’t the main point of my little rant.

All I’m doing today is drawing some attention to the issue. If you are interested in reading further, please take a look at the Global Voices advocacy site and MoTIC (French).

Share and Enjoy:

posted under General, Ubuntu Planet

11 Comments to

“Stuff that doesn’t work in Morocco”

On January 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm Ali Says:
Strange…I live in Saudi Arabia and all the above sites are open (except for proxies which are blocked to prevent porn and such)

In fact I don’t know why your ISP blocks Google Maps (probably they have top-secret facilities in Morocco )
On January 15th, 2008 at 5:44 pm nabil2199 Says:
I agree that that sucks,it seems like Maroc telecom ,the ANRT and some few other people in the government still live in the Hassan 2 era.
But overall Morocco is one of the most open(if not the most open) arab countries.Plus we still have access to internet porn which is awesome
P.S. love the human test
On January 15th, 2008 at 5:54 pm matthew Says:
Thanks nabil!

I agree, Morocco does quite well in terms of openness, especially as compared to other Arab states. I credit Mohamed VI for most of that, although the society as a whole is filled with great people who are themselves quite open and friendly. I guess some things just take time. It just frustrates me when I see how amazing things are in so many ways, and then find such silly things like this happening.
On January 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm MoTIC Says:
Thank you Matthew for spreading the word. This is an important issue and I really appreciate that you help us making this more largely known.

I added some links in this post:
motic.blogspot.com/2008/0…
On January 16th, 2008 at 5:09 pm nabil2199 Says:
hi matthew,just to let you know that there’s the linux party at l’ecole mohammadia des ingenieurs in Rabat.
Hope to see you there.
On January 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 pm Jillian York Says:
Thanks Matthew, for outlining this – I’m including it in the next Global Voices Advocacy post on Morocco.

I’ll also be linking to your blog in my own
On February 8th, 2008 at 2:48 am matthew Says:
Guru: OpenDNS is included in my list of things that don’t work from Morocco.
On February 8th, 2008 at 12:25 am Guru Panguji Says:
Hi there,

What you can do is use Open DNS as your DNS server. Check opendns.org/

That would most definitely clear some of your concerns and present you pretty much, filtered, unrestricted access !
On April 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am matthew Says:
I am pleased to report that OpenDNS has been working for me for more than two weeks straight. You Tube has been up longer than that without any interruption. This is good.
On April 21st, 2008 at 11:24 pm matthew Says:
It’s less than a week later and I am sad to say OpenDNS has not worked for me for at least two days. Sigh.
On May 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm Matthew Helmke (dot) Net » Morocco blocks Google Maps Says:
[...] have blogged previously about stuff that doesn’t work in Morocco. At that time, Google Earth was already blocked, but one could still find the same information via [...]