Amnesty International has recently released a comprehensive report detailing the extensive surveillance apparatus employed by Moroccan authorities to monitor, track, and ultimately silence journalists, activists, and other critical voices. The report, titled We start with the verdict: Inside Morocco’s surveillance machine, reveals how illegal surveillance tactics are used to target human rights defenders and journalists, subjecting them to criminal prosecution, judicial harassment, and various forms of repression that violate their rights to privacy, freedom, and peaceful assembly.
Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, states, "Morocco has fully adopted techno-authoritarian practices, acquiring a wide range of surveillance technologies to establish a repressive system designed to instill fear among human rights activists and journalists, thereby silencing their voices and hindering their work both within and outside Morocco." Despite repeated denials from Moroccan authorities regarding the use of spyware, new evidence obtained by Amnesty International—including whistleblower testimonies, leaked surveillance data, and government records—contradicts these claims, illustrating the extensive network of international suppliers that provide these tools.
The report presents the most detailed account to date of the technologies employed by Moroccan authorities, including high-tech spyware, audio listening systems, and tracking devices used to surveil journalists and human rights defenders. These surveillance tools are sourced from businesses based in Israel, the European Union, and the United States, such as NSO Group, the now-defunct Italian spyware company Hacking Team (now Memento Labs), and the British-German companies Gamma Group and FinFisher. Callamard emphasizes, "This is yet another demonstration of a global economy of technological oppression, enabled by companies and states that fail to meet their obligations under international law."
Amnesty International’s findings highlight how this repressive ecosystem makes it exceedingly difficult and dangerous for the Moroccan populace to exercise their rights to free expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Even after being released from detention, victims continue to live under the shadow of surveillance and face smear campaigns fueled by private information obtained through such invasive measures. Callamard demands that Moroccan authorities immediately cease the illegal surveillance of human rights defenders and journalists.
The forensic evidence uncovered by Amnesty International illustrates the various methods used to attack human rights defenders, including physical device infections, one-click attacks—which typically rely on the victim clicking on a malicious link—zero-click attacks, which can infect targets without any action on their part, and network injection attacks perpetrated through the state-owned Maroc Telecom network.
Whistleblower Insights into Morocco's Surveillance System
Amnesty International previously published initial forensic evidence confirming infections of human rights defenders’ mobile phones with the Pegasus spyware. The new report identifies the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST) as the entity responsible for implementing Pegasus spyware in Morocco, detailing the extensively documented abuses against activists and journalists between 2017 and 2021, despite prior denials from Moroccan authorities. A whistleblower, known by the pseudonym _Safir_, is a former DGST employee who has provided crucial insights into the internal workings of the agency and the range of surveillance tools it employs. Amnesty International corroborated key aspects of _Safir’s_ testimony with independent sources, technical evidence, and interviews with human rights defenders.
By combining firsthand accounts from the DGST informant with forensic digital research, interviews with ten surveillance targets, and leaked data on surveillance operations in Morocco, Amnesty International is able to present one of the most detailed and enlightening disclosures of state surveillance activities, contextualizing spyware abuses as tactics within a broader system of monitoring and control. _Safir_ revealed that personal devices are not safe, as targets are secretly filmed and recorded while detained, in their offices, cars, cafes, and even their bedrooms. Phone calls are systematically intercepted, and location data is tracked, revealing the daily movements of activists and their associates. _Safir_ explained that DGST agents would infiltrate mobile phone shops to sell pre-infected devices to targeted individuals and recruit neighbors of the chosen human rights defenders as informants.
These tactics not only target the selected activists but also extend to their families, friends, and professional networks, with agents operating without judicial oversight or accountability, attacking activists in secrecy and with impunity. Rebecca White, a researcher at Amnesty International's Security Lab, emphasizes, "The tools they use are extensive, but the objective is clear: to blackmail, discredit, humiliate, and, if necessary, unjustly imprison those who advocate for human rights in Morocco.”
For human rights defenders in Morocco, there is virtually no place to hide or escape from the pervasive state surveillance network that extends even beyond the country’s borders. The operations of the DGST are executed primarily by this agency, which employs a combination of advanced digital surveillance techniques and physical device infections as fundamental methods against journalists and activists.
The Use of Pegasus Spyware Against Human Rights Defenders and Journalists
Amnesty International's investigation, conducted in collaboration with 14 media organizations coordinated by Forbidden Stories, is based on the work of Moroccan investigative journalist Hicham Mansouri, who has also been a victim of Morocco's surveillance machinery and is now exiled in France. In 2015, he was imprisoned on false charges of “adultery” and “sexual exploitation” after a trial that did not meet international standards. Mansouri explained to Amnesty International that the surveillance leads to self-censorship, stating, "It is very violent. A friend told me that, years later, the day he entered prison brought him some relief.”
In October 2019, Amnesty International documented the first forensic evidence of Pegasus infection attempts in Morocco, targeting Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, a human rights lawyer defending demonstrators from the Hirak El Rif movement. Records from the Pegasus Project indicate that his phone number was incorporated into the Moroccan Pegasus system on September 19, 2017, and was repeatedly targeted by the spyware program on multiple occasions, confirming that Pegasus operations in Morocco were fully operational by October 2017.
Overall, this report underscores the urgent need for international scrutiny and action to address the alarming state of human rights in Morocco, particularly concerning the use of advanced surveillance technologies to oppress dissenting voices.
As reported by amnistia.org.
