Networked Protest Movements in Morocco: Digital Space as a Field for Shaping the Protest Discourse to the Marginalized

Abstract

This study explores the role of social media as a tool of resistance, in the second wave of the "Moroccan Spring", manifested in the social movement that has swept through several Moroccan regions since 2016. It examines the forms and mechanisms of digital protest created by young protesters in Morocco, and how new technology has been employed in mobilization. This study is based on the virtual ethnography approach, which provides insight into the early formation of the protest movement. It also allows the research to trace the development of the movement by analyzing the social interactions of individuals on social media and inspecting the digital traces left by protesters during various instances of action.