Moroccan authorities have detained a number of prominent online influencers, among them streamer Ilyas El Malki and the influencer known as Moulinex, citing investigations into alleged offenses that include spreading false information and breaches of public decency laws.
These arrests aren’t isolated moral panics, but arrive against a backdrop of new laws and a global scramble to define who gets to make money, shape tastes, or “influence” public opinion online.
In 2025, Morocco moved to strengthen its regulatory reach over digital media. The country’s audiovisual watchdog and other authorities have signaled plans to expand oversight of social platforms and the content they host, calling for platforms to act faster against “illicit” content and for creators to fall in line with national values.
So far, though, Morocco still leans heavily on criminal law to police the influencer world. There is no dedicated system for creators, so authorities fall back on existing penal code articles to deal with online behaviour.
Prosecutors use laws on defamation, insults, false information and public morality to open cases, which means creators often face investigations and arrests instead of clear administrative rules.
At the same time regulators say they are working on a social media framework that would place new responsibilities on both platforms and creators who earn money in Morocco. Early discussions mention local legal representation for major platforms and quicker removal of harmful content.
Morocco is not alone in using criminal law to manage online expression. The regional example most often cited is Egypt, which shows how far this model can go in practice. Human rights groups and local reporting cite repeated arrests and prosecutions of creators accused of vulgarity or moral transgression, often under broad morality and cybercrime laws.
Those cases typically cite criminal statutes and have led to prison sentences and fines in some prosecutions. The Egyptian example shows how moral or public order statutes can be used to police online content and to remove creators from public platforms through criminal processes.
Morocco’s and Egypt’s approaches stand out when compared with the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates uses a structured licensing system with clear fees and administrative penalties. Creators who want to earn money in the UAE must hold both a trade licence and a media licence and those who ignore the rules face significant fines.
Government guidance and legal summaries show fines that can run into the hundreds of thousands of dirhams and administrative sanctions that include suspension or removal of content.
The UAE model treats creators as regulated media professionals and exacts compliance mainly through licensing and economic penalties.
A very different picture appears in Europe. France has moved to regulate the business side of influence. French lawmakers passed Law number 2023 451 on 9 June 2023 which sets out rules for commercial influence.
The law defines who is an influencer for commercial acts and regulates certain promotions that target French audiences. France also relies heavily on pre-existing consumer protection rules and on industry self regulation through bodies such as the ARPP.
The French system focuses on transparency and protecting minors and consumers rather than on criminalizing broad categories of online speech.
But China has taken one of the toughest steps in the world to control who gets to speak about certain topics online.
In late 2025, the country introduced new rules saying that influencers cannot give advice on areas like health, law, education, or finance unless they hold an official qualification.
The government’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), says the goal is to fight misinformation and protect people from “fake experts” who post confident but wrong advice just to gain followers.
Under the new rules, social media platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Bilibili must check every creator’s credentials before allowing them to publish content on these sensitive topics.
This means that someone talking about medical treatments must have a health-related degree or licence, and anyone giving legal or financial advice needs a formal certificate or professional background.
If a creator cannot prove their expertise, the platform must block the post. If they try anyway, their content can be removed and they risk fines or suspension.
In practice, this has changed the influencer landscape a lot. Many lifestyle creators who used to give “tips” on nutrition, mental health, or investments can no longer do so unless they are qualified.
Platforms have also had to build internal systems to verify documents and filter uploads, creating a new layer of control before a video even goes online.
What Morocco has to learn from other countries’ experiences is the necessity of a clear, enforceable system that protects public trust while giving room for creative and entrepreneurial voices.
One useful starting point comes from UNESCO’s “Principles for the Governance of Digital Platforms,” which many national regulators now refer to when they try to regulate online content.
These Principles insist that any rules for social-media platforms must clearly distinguish between illegal content (hate speech, defamation, incitement, etc.) and content that is simply provocative or non-conformist; define transparent procedures for content moderation and removal that platforms must follow, and require any enforcement actions to go through due judicial process rather than arbitrary police orders;
At the same time regulators must strive for predictability and fairness, rather than surprise arrests. That means relying on administrative rules and civil or consumer-protection regimes for marketing, sponsored content, defamation or harmful content, rather than defaulting to criminal law.
Studies about influencer marketing in Europe show that a regulation system built around clear disclosure requirements and consumer-protection laws can reduce risks of deception and protect vulnerable audiences such as minors.
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