Morocco wants Google to correct the country's founding date
The diplomatic standoff between Morocco and Algeria is spilling over into cyberspace. As reported by Morocco World News, Moroccan Internet users have denounced a smear campaign against their country, allegedly organised by Algeria.
The controversy concerns the results offered by the Google search engine when users ask for the date of Morocco's foundation. The search engine's answer is 7 April 1956, the date of Moroccan independence from French occupation.
Morocco argues that the Kingdom was founded many centuries before it became part of the French empire in Africa, so the date of foundation would be much earlier.
Many Moroccan internet users have expressed their disagreement with Google's response on social networks. On Facebook, digital content creator Mohamed Lazar asked: "How could we have been founded in 1956, when we were the first state to recognise the independence of the United States in 1777?"
Moroccan netizens believe it is all part of a campaign organised from Algeria to turn Morocco into a relatively recent post-colonial kingdom, rather than a centuries-old country.
The aim would be to equate its history with Algeria itself, which gained independence from France in 1962. In this way, Morocco would become a state created by the French, with no significant history prior to the protectorate.
Prior to this campaign, the search engine offered 789 as an answer to the question about Morocco's founding date. It appears that Algerian activists have modified the historical information about Morocco on Wikipedia, a source commonly used by Google for its answers.
As Algerian journalist and analyst Oualid Kebir told Morocco World News, this campaign is part of the Algerian regime's "hostile campaign" against Morocco. For Kebir, "Morocco was not founded in 1956, but is a state that existed for centuries, a fact that cannot be changed by Google, Wikipedia or the ruling Algerian regime, which has a historical [inferiority] complex".
The foundation of the Moroccan state dates back to 788 AD, when the Idrisid dynasty settled in the city of Volubilis, also called Walili. Later, under the reign of the monarch Idris II, the capital was moved to Fez, which began to prosper economically and culturally.
The current Alaouite dynasty, to which both King Mohammed VI and his father Hassan II belong, has its origins in the 17th century. Under this dynasty, Morocco became the first country to recognise independence from the United States and to suffer French occupation in the early 20th century.
Protest to UNESCO
This was not the only politico-cultural controversy to affect relations between the two countries. At the beginning of July, the Moroccan Ministry of Culture complained to UNESCO about the fact that Algeria had used a photo of a Moroccan kaftan in its candidacy to include the "Gandoura" and the "M'lehfa" (traditional Algerian long tunics) on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The international body will debate this candidacy in 2024.
It so happens that Morocco had submitted its candidacy in June to register the kaftan on the UNESCO list, a matter to be debated in 2025.
