Moroccan Social Media Usage Surges During COVID-19 Lockdown, Study Finds

Moroccans posted 201,301 posts on Facebook between February 12 and April 12 last, generating 48.9 million reactions, 5.1 million comments and 5.8 million shares, reveals the "Social listening" study conducted by the "Digital Equity" agency.

The study report indicates that the posts relate to the information provided by the public media. On Twitter, Moroccans posted 376,244 tweets/retweets over the same period, the report notes, noting that the #stayathome hashtag is widely used by the Moroccan Twittersphere.

The discussions of Internet users focus on several themes, including the search for vaccines, the wearing of masks, the situation of Moroccans living abroad, the special fund dedicated to the management of the pandemic and more recently, the deconfinement.

Medical and other fake news have proliferated during the same period; which has given rise to a new form of collective decryption of data, particularly through pages like "tahaqaq", Facebook groups and Twitter hashtags, it is observed. Not to mention an unprecedented civic mobilization and outpouring of solidarity.