Report: Islamist Groups Orchestrated 2018 Moroccan Consumer Boycott, Targeting Major Companies

This is what it was. At the time, the three companies targeted by this boycott campaign were accused of unfairly raising prices. They are, according to La Tribune, two Moroccan groups: Sidi Ali mineral waters and the Afriquia gas service station network. The third target is none other than the Moroccan subsidiary of the Danone Group.

This boycott campaign was a great success, to the point that a drop in stock prices was noted, as well as a drop in the turnover of the three targeted companies.

At "Centrale Danone", there was a 40% drop in the second quarter of 2018 and a 35% drop in the third quarter, or about 178 million euros lost, which the Danone Group acknowledges with this affair! As for Sidi Ali Waters, it is the collapse with sales plummeting 88% in the first half of last year and an estimated loss of 50 million euros.

However, Transparency Maroc sees behind this apparent movement of disgruntled consumers a real political maneuver.

It is "the entire governance of an economy undermined by rent, corruption and the interference of power that is targeted", thinks the organization, referring to Miriem Bensalah, former President of the Moroccan Employers’ Union, who owns Sidi Ali, as well as Afriquia whose Akwa holding is chaired by Aziz Akhannouch, Minister of Agriculture and President of the governing party, the Rally of Independents (RNI).

The French think tank that could be described as a "counter-influencer", the School of Thought on Economic Warfare (EPGE), is trying to trace the origins of this campaign, trying to identify anonymous websites, blogger producers of articles, but also "hackers" likely to multiply views and automated messages through methods such as "astroturfing" or through adapted devices ("bots", "spam", ...).

In fact, the EPGE investigators, after closely examining the intense virality of the campaign (37,000 "likes" in less than an hour on the night of April 21, 2018), realize that sponsored "views", the purchase of thousands of "followers" or "likes" generate significant costs and therefore imply substantial funding.

This vast nebula, very involved in the 2018 boycott, is particularly in line with the radical Islamist movement, Al Adl Wal Ihsan ("Justice and Charity"), which advocates the advent of the Caliphate in the Maghreb and wants to "deliver the Muslim nation from impiety".

Yet, for many years, it has been the bane of the Moroccan monarchy, the think tank affirms.