Via physorg.com -
(AP) -- Internet users in Morocco unable to access the video-sharing Web site YouTube since last week expressed fears Tuesday that the government has stepped up its campaign to restrict independent media.
Moroccan bloggers were surprised to discover they could no longer open YouTube on Friday and promptly speculated in online forums about whether the site had been censured and, if so, why.
Najib Omrani, a spokesman for state-controlled telecommunications provider Maroc Telecom, which supplies most Internet access in Morocco, blamed the problem on a technical glitch but could not explain why it affected only Google Inc.'s YouTube.
Moroccan government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah said he was unable to comment on telecommunications issues.
Some Internet users were skeptical that a technical problem was to blame and noted that the site went down after users posted videos critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco took control of in 1975 after Spain, the colonial power, withdrew.
"They've clearly blocked YouTube," said university student Abdelhakim Albarkani, parked in a Rabat cyber cafe doing his economics homework. "I'm worried, because YouTube allowed us to see things the state newspapers and television won't show."
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