Violent Street Fight Videos Surge on Moroccan Social Media, Raising Concerns

Throughout the past week, social media in Morocco have been inundated with videos showing illegal street fights and on beaches. These are recordings made by young people to take up challenges or to show their firepower. According to Hespress, the authors of these videos bet and bet on the high audience rate by broadcasting content they claim is sporting but which does not comply with any regulations.

The fights, sometimes bare-handed or generally with bladed weapons, take place most often in the streets of Casablanca, Salé, Meknes and Fez. For Said Jaafar, president of the Center for Social Change and Values in Morocco and the Mediterranean Basin, this phenomenon is part of a global structure. According to him, these aggressive and violent acts come from those who have been subjected and persecuted. They are having difficulty compensating for their frustrations and take refuge in violence. He warns against the impact of these videos on children and the normalization of violence.

While calling on institutions to redouble their efforts to tackle the spread of violence among children, Jaafar stressed that the spread of the phenomenon of violence on social media is dangerous.