Online safety & content laws in Morocco (2026)

Freedom House rated Morocco 'Partially Free' at 54/100 in its Freedom on the Net 2025 report. The government issued court orders for removal of only 10 items (all defamation-related) by end-2024, and no political or social content blocking was recorded during the coverage period.

Law No. 88.13 (2016 Press Code) criminalises offences via electronic media. Law No. 07-03 addresses cybercrime. Morocco ratified the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime in 2018 and its xenophobia/hate-speech Additional Protocol, harmonising domestic law with Council of Europe standards.

In 2025, Morocco began finalising a comprehensive social-media regulation bill that would expand HACA's authority to cover digital platforms without a Moroccan physical presence, require appointment of a local legal representative, mandate algorithmic content-moderation systems, and impose transparency-reporting obligations on hate speech, misinformation, and child-harmful content — closely mirroring EU DSA obligations.

Under the existing framework, online platforms bear no direct liability for user-generated content; legal responsibility rests with individual content creators or posters. The proposed HACA law would change this by assigning active moderation duties to platforms.

A dedicated draft law on electronic gaming (announced April 2026) proposes mandatory age-rating aligned with international standards, restrictions on minors' access to violent games and loot-box mechanics, and platform safeguards to limit digital addiction — the first sector-specific children's online-safety measure in Morocco.

Draft Law No. 22.20 (2020), which proposed prison terms of up to three years for social-media users, was withdrawn after widespread opposition. Article 19 and Human Rights Watch have documented ongoing use of the Penal Code to prosecute online criticism of the monarchy, religion, and Western Sahara policy, indicating that informal speech restrictions persist despite the lack of a comprehensive safety law.