Yup, you've read it right, Maroc Telecom, the biggest internet service provider in Morocco has stealth banned online gaming in the country. I believe this is the first large scale ban on all online games to ever happen in the world.
Now before I go into the details of the matter, let's start with some context first. For those who don't know, Morocco is a North Western African country, at the gates of Europe, that prides itself in its modernity and stability relative to other countries in the region. The country has 3 ISPs, but the historical and largest company (Maroc Telecom) controls the biggest share of the internet market over here.
Last January, in quite the unexpected move, all three ISPs decided to completely ban VoIP services. The following apps audio and video chat got blocked: Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook messenger and Google Hangout. Here are a few quotes from an article about this particular matter for the people that want to learn a bit more:
A lot of popular outrage, almost exclusively on social media which are extremely active in Morocco as in other countries in the region, followed, forcing ISPs to finally react and deliver a statement saying that it was an ANRT's ruling, a supposedly independent regulatory agency.
Fast forward a few months for a new development: Last Monday, a new set of VoIP applications that had escaped the ban until now got blocked (imo messenger for example) by Maroc Telecom. More importantly, this was accompanied by what seems to be a stealth ban on all online video games in the country. As I am writing this, it is almost impossible to play a online game from here.
At first, this was thought to be simply the ISP suffering from technical difficulties, but when asked about the issue, Maroc Telecom has remained to this day strangely silent. Users all over the country have quickly realized that they all suffered from the exact same issue, There is currently a lot of outrage on both facebook and twitter towards the ISP. People suspect, and I am among those people, that this a direct consequence of the VoIP block being extended to applications that weren't affected before. Moroccans on the internet are calling it a "ban on online gaming".
Interestingly, and I will be using dota 2 as an example for the following, pinging game servers directly reveals absolutely no issues (I have done more extensive tests of course, this is but a sample):
while when trying to play this happens (if you ever manage to connect):
Huge amounts of packet loss and almost instant DCs, unplayable and it is the case for almost every single other online game.
Now I am no expert on telecoms, and if anyone has any input on this, it would be greatly appreciated as people are trying really hard to make sense of this with the limited information we have access to, but It is suspected that a large array of ports are being filtered, and given very low priority in treatment causing huge amounts of packet loss. This seems to be the method used to block these apps. Online games seem to be the collateral damage.
Why post this on an international forum? Simple, to give this piece of news the visibility it deserves, a lot of people even here are completely unaware of it, especially since gaming carries an even more negative stigma over here than in developed countries, and secondly to maybe stir some debate on the reasons and techniques used for this ban.
I am hoping to help put pressure on the ISP to at least respond to all of the complaints they have completely ignored up until now. Also, an online petition has been started today by some members of the Moroccan gaming community, which is almost at 10k signatures, but I doubt it will achieve much as these are even less effective than in more advanced countries. Here is the link anyway: https://secure.avaaz.org/fr/petition/Maroc_Telecom_Debloquer_le_jeu_Online_au_Maroc/?cvvLJkb
As you can see, net neutrality is in quite a sad state over here, and we might be currently watching the first live experiment of what happens when the principle is not respected. (at least in a country generally regarded as non despotic)
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/boycotts-appeals-petitions-restore-blocked-voip-calls-morocco-1520817507
http://www.medias24.com/MAROC/MEDIAS-IT/164024-Apres-la-Voip-des-gamers-accusent-Maroc-Telecom-d-avoir-bloque-des-jeux-video-en-ligne.html
Now before I go into the details of the matter, let's start with some context first. For those who don't know, Morocco is a North Western African country, at the gates of Europe, that prides itself in its modernity and stability relative to other countries in the region. The country has 3 ISPs, but the historical and largest company (Maroc Telecom) controls the biggest share of the internet market over here.
Last January, in quite the unexpected move, all three ISPs decided to completely ban VoIP services. The following apps audio and video chat got blocked: Skype, Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook messenger and Google Hangout. Here are a few quotes from an article about this particular matter for the people that want to learn a bit more:
Moroccans and expatriates have taken their fury against the blocking of voice over IP (VoIP) calls to social networks, and have called for the boycott of the North African country's telecommunication operators that implemented the ban.
There are now growing calls for Moroccan kings intervention to put pressure on the firms to restore internet call services.
Maroc Telecom, Meditel and Inwi, the three telecommunication service providers in Morocco, welcomed the New Year of 2016 with the ban of free mobile internet calls made through mobile phone connections.
Skype, Viber, Tango, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are among the applications whose VoIP calls have been blocked by telecom operators on 3G, and 4G connections in January and ADSL connections in February.
A lot of popular outrage, almost exclusively on social media which are extremely active in Morocco as in other countries in the region, followed, forcing ISPs to finally react and deliver a statement saying that it was an ANRT's ruling, a supposedly independent regulatory agency.
Moroccos Telecommunications Regulatory National Agency (ANRT), which was behind the ban, justified its decision by stating that none of the services providing voice over IP (VoIP) or other "free internet calls" had the required licenses.
Fast forward a few months for a new development: Last Monday, a new set of VoIP applications that had escaped the ban until now got blocked (imo messenger for example) by Maroc Telecom. More importantly, this was accompanied by what seems to be a stealth ban on all online video games in the country. As I am writing this, it is almost impossible to play a online game from here.
At first, this was thought to be simply the ISP suffering from technical difficulties, but when asked about the issue, Maroc Telecom has remained to this day strangely silent. Users all over the country have quickly realized that they all suffered from the exact same issue, There is currently a lot of outrage on both facebook and twitter towards the ISP. People suspect, and I am among those people, that this a direct consequence of the VoIP block being extended to applications that weren't affected before. Moroccans on the internet are calling it a "ban on online gaming".
Interestingly, and I will be using dota 2 as an example for the following, pinging game servers directly reveals absolutely no issues (I have done more extensive tests of course, this is but a sample):
while when trying to play this happens (if you ever manage to connect):
Huge amounts of packet loss and almost instant DCs, unplayable and it is the case for almost every single other online game.
Now I am no expert on telecoms, and if anyone has any input on this, it would be greatly appreciated as people are trying really hard to make sense of this with the limited information we have access to, but It is suspected that a large array of ports are being filtered, and given very low priority in treatment causing huge amounts of packet loss. This seems to be the method used to block these apps. Online games seem to be the collateral damage.
Why post this on an international forum? Simple, to give this piece of news the visibility it deserves, a lot of people even here are completely unaware of it, especially since gaming carries an even more negative stigma over here than in developed countries, and secondly to maybe stir some debate on the reasons and techniques used for this ban.
I am hoping to help put pressure on the ISP to at least respond to all of the complaints they have completely ignored up until now. Also, an online petition has been started today by some members of the Moroccan gaming community, which is almost at 10k signatures, but I doubt it will achieve much as these are even less effective than in more advanced countries. Here is the link anyway: https://secure.avaaz.org/fr/petition/Maroc_Telecom_Debloquer_le_jeu_Online_au_Maroc/?cvvLJkb
As you can see, net neutrality is in quite a sad state over here, and we might be currently watching the first live experiment of what happens when the principle is not respected. (at least in a country generally regarded as non despotic)
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/boycotts-appeals-petitions-restore-blocked-voip-calls-morocco-1520817507
http://www.medias24.com/MAROC/MEDIAS-IT/164024-Apres-la-Voip-des-gamers-accusent-Maroc-Telecom-d-avoir-bloque-des-jeux-video-en-ligne.html